December 15, 2007

My Sojourn at the states

November 28th is when I came to St.Louis planning to complete an ongoing project. There were many issues without answers. And once I was at the client's place, only then I understood all what they did to bring up the issues. Kept resolving one by one to complete the LDAP ActiveSync Identity management project. Although not everything was complete I still had to move out of the place. One best thing that happened was the LUNCH at RUCHI, the Indian restaurant. Wow, it was an amazing lunch.

Then on Sunday, we have left to Salt Lake City, an amazing place expect for the climate. It was freezing for me. I have never ever experience what negative temperatures were like before here. I was walking on the roads when it was -6. Its killer cold for me. Lot of Indian restaurants around.

Finally after a two tough-cold weeks at Salt Lake City, I am moving to Austin tomorrow. Expecting to meet some old friends. Will update

December 13, 2007

NetBeans 6.0 Integrated Development Environment Ready for Action

I shouldn't be doing the talking here ... so .... click

Few Questions to ask when you are designing an Identity Management Project

Hope this helps for some. This is basic, I shall keep adding. Visit this blog for more.
  • What resources do you have?
  • What are your resource schema?
  • How do you want your mapping from Identity manager to be done?
  • What are the accountIds I get to access your resource?
  • Does that accountid have the right privileges to access all the items the identity manager needs access to?
  • If you are doing Active sync from LDAP do you have the changeLog enabled?
  • Is the ID provided, access the changelog?
  • How many object classes do you have in your LDAP?
  • Should all of them be managed?
  • How many object classes you have in AD?
  • Do you know that only one object class can be managed from one resource instance in AD?
  • What are the additional attributes you want to populate in Identity Manager?
  • How do you create users on every resource?
  • If you are following any non-generic process to populate users on your Authoritative source/sources then please let us know HOW?
  • What is the password policy on each resource?
  • What is the password policy you expect the Identity Manager to have?

December 12, 2007

Is your Identity Management Implementation complete?

I have question? Who exactly is implementing the complete Identity solution? My identity management experience is just 3 years, by December 12th. I have worked with various clients. I have not found even a single organization using the Identity management product (which ever they bought) to the fullest. I mean the provisioning capabilities of the product are not used properly.

And the major reason people state is, they are not clear about their organizational roles. How long? I mean it has been longtime organizations started having the need to implement IdM solutions and still no one's figured out how to make it complete? The sales pitch of many identity sales guys says, other than compliance one can achieve profits by limiting calls to the help desk, reduce the number of administrators managing resources and all such other stuff, but is it happening?

I have seen many orgs, asking us just to send an email to the admin rather than provisioning. The admin creates the user and says done to make the audit log. Thats it, the auditor is happy and so is the company. Is this what is Identity Management?

What is the way ahead for all these implementors and organizations? Investing this much on the solutions/products?

A different thought:
How about saying a discplined approach from the beginning of an organization would have avoided this mess? Security/Process these terms come in only after the mess has already happened. Recently I was talking to an ISO in a big company and he said first I need the process to be in and then we can think of security. Wow, dude are you into information security?

If an organization can have processes set from day one and follow them and be disciplined, things will be better.

Some hero from some workgroup creates a beautiful html page and says from today we can use this for some XYZ work. Its launced and the hero is rewarded. Later after 10 years when this page becomes critical and the creator has already left the organization without any documentation, pffffffhhhh then you know what happens.

So any new entreprenuers? Guys be cautious today to avoid huge unnecessary investments tomorrow.

December 11, 2007

SUN Identity Manager: Deserialization failed for xmlString

Did you ever see this error when accessing the repository objects via the BPE? Ok this was an error recently my friend got. I thought I should mention the reason so that someone who get it sometime can quickly refer.

What my colleague did?:
He imported the netbeans plugin for idm into netbeans and configured a project. When he was configuring the repository, he gave the existing repository as the one that needs to be used by netbeans. Thats it, NetBeans changed the serial numbers of few tables of the Identity manager repo. Thus this error.

Solution:
I think we need to do an LH SETREPO and things should be working.

December 9, 2007

Are you using the Metaview of SUN Identity Manager?

Are you? If your answer is a NO, then it is suggested that you better stick with it. This feature currently has few bugs, which are yet to be corrected in the SUN Identity Manager release 8.0. It really plays with your attributes in such a way, that you hardly have an idea of what is happening.

I was using this feature recently and only landed in horrible times. When I referred to my seniors at SUN, they said they never use it as it has problems.

So to my suggestion to all SUN IdM folks out there is ... do not use Metaview please.

MetaView of SIM vs MIIS

Metaview feature of Sun Identity Manager, I don't know how many of the Identity professionals use it. However I wanted to take you through the architecture of it. It would be great for people who know MIIS.

The features are ...

Identity Attributes:
This feature allows you to configure the incoming and outgoing attributes. You will be able to create a new attribute, choose whether it should be stored in the identity manager, choose its source and destinations (resource). This is a feature that is exactly available in MIIS. You can also set the precedence for the source, like you may choose the first source and then the next which would be able to populate this attribute, again a feature of MIIS.

Identity Events:
Have you been into the third tab of Microsoft Identity Integration Server, where you can configure the delete rule? Yes, its the same way here. You will be able to configure the events like DELETE, DISABLE, ENABLE etc. You need to create a new event type, specify a rule on how it should be recognized and then actions to be performed.

These features are very specific to active sync because that is what a Synchronization engine works for.

Recently I have been working with these features and every moment I was feeling the MIIS features.

Bulk Loading

This may look novice to experienced professionals.

Have you ever did a bulk load of users into Sun Identity Manager? The findings I have are ...

Every attribute that comes under the waveset should be represented in the global namespace and the other attributes should be addressed as accounts[RESOURCE].attrName.

ex:
command,user,global.firstname,global.lastname,password.password,password.confirmPassword,waveset.resources
create,henryea,Earl,Henry,P@ssw0rd,P@ssw0rd,AD

Hope this should be useful to someone.

December 4, 2007

Using "lh console" when your SUN Identity Manager Application is down

I have just encountered a different kind of a problem. I have set the trace parameters in my Sun Identity manager. I have configured it to trace few adapters and finally gave a large number for the file size. Restarted the server and it failed saying ...

java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: "9999999999

So to correct this error I have got two options

1. Changing the System Configuration file using the lh console command

go to wshome\bin
Execute the following commands:
./lh console and press enter
You'll get to the configurator> prompt
Atthe promt, type
export -v c:\syscon.xml CONFIGURATION
now open the file c:\syscon.xml and scroll down till you find the required attribute to change.

Change the value of 9999999 in the line to 512 and save the file.

Now at the configurator> prompt, type the following command and press enter:
import c:\syscon.xml

Reboot the appserver and launch the idm web application.

To Generalize this way we can change any of these configurations.

2. Editing the MySql repo

1) SELECT * FROM object o where type='Configuration' and name = 'SYSTEM CONFIGURATION';
2) Go to the xml column at the very end of the table and look for the string pattern "Attribute name='maxFileSizeKB'". Get the exact number of 99999s that you plugged in.
3) Run the following update to do a "in-place" update. (I have updated the file size to be 1KB - 1024. Replace with the number of your chocie)
update object set xml=replace(xml, "", "") where type='Configuration' and name = 'SYSTEM CONFIGURATION';

Hope this information would be worth for the IDM Fraternity

November 21, 2007

Sun Positioned in Leaders Quadrant for Web Access Management

Image Source: Gartner's Website

The picture does the talking. SUN's Access Manager is listed in the leaders quadrant in the Gartner's magic quadrant for Web Access management. Sun Access Manager is a key product in the SUN Identity Management Suite.

Give a read on what experts have to say ...

1. Gartner

2. SUN

3. News Link

com.mysql.jdbc.packetTooBigException

Did you ever get this? I got it when I was working with Sun Identity Manager. The best solution is to edit the the mysql file, my.ini (windows) to add max_allowed_packet parameter under [mysqld] section and restart the MySql server.

# SERVER SECTION
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# The following options will be read by the MySQL Server. Make sure that
# you have installed the server correctly (see above) so it reads this
# file.
#
[mysqld]

max_allowed_packet=32M

November 14, 2007

SUN's strength in Role Mining just got bigger and better - acquired Vaau

SUN just acquired VAAU.

Vaau's solution is very good at Role Mining and Role Classification, the RBACx product suite is very robust in this respect. However Vaau's solution is always dependent on some Identity management solution like SUN Identity Manager.

As I wrote in previous blog about the strength of SIM 8.0, which would be very strong in Role mining, role engineering etc.

The acquisition of Vaau really completes Sun's story around Enterprise Identity Management and Role-Compliance and will keep Sun in the forefront of Enterprise Identity Management.

Read More

November 12, 2007

What is org.apache.jasper.JasperException?

I have been successfully running an instance of the SUN Java Identity Manager 7.1 since long. Suddenly one day after I reboot my machine I see this error.


I am very curious to know why exactly this happens with something which was working perfectly.

I shall post the solution once I find it, however if someone can throw some light on this it would be great. Thanks

November 9, 2007

Happy Diwali


Happy Diwali to one and all.

May this festival of lights bring prosperity, peace, love success for everyone.

About Diwali: The very reason why we celebrate this festival is to mark the victory of God/Good over evil. Two different stories that we hear are ...

1. Few people say, its the day when Lord Krishna along with Lordess Satyabhama fought and killed Narakasura.

2. Few others say, that Lord Rama killed Ravana and liberated Lordess Sita this day.

That is the piece of information I know :-)

Anyway have a great festival.

November 6, 2007

HP Security Handbook

Was just reading some blogs and suddenly found this.

This handbook contains a chapter on Identity management. I should say, its lucid and wonderful. To read the other contents ...

October 31, 2007

Happy Andhra Formation Day - November 1st

Every time we get holiday on November 1st, sure everyone born in Andhra Pradesh remembers Sri Potti Sriramulu garu.

Is remembering him enough? Does enjoying a holiday alone, makes us a proud and responsible Andhrite?? I am sure we all dont think so. This person gave up his life just to bring this state to us. He gave up food, water, shelter comforts everything for us. Today the state proudly boasts of big time IT parks, huge growth in infrastructure and many other goodies. However, to the very truth, today there are many Potti Sriramulus out there who dont have water to drink and food to eat.

All of these people (freedom fighters) brought us freedom which we couldn't handle properly. Who ponders about this? I am sure all of us do, in our offices, at cubicles at social gatherings etc. Then why dont we have the right results? Because actions are pending.

The first best action which we all should implement is ... I think, we should vote. Every time there is election, wherever we are in India, we should make a point that we go back and vote, because we are educated enough to choose the right leaders.
The second best thing we can do is to save the natural resources like Water, Food, Vegetables etc.

I thought to mention my thoughts this way about a great day.

JAI TELUGU TALLI

October 23, 2007

Puzzling???

I have been to Visakhapatnam recently. I took a pic at the airport. Can you see the picture clearly and make out whats wrong there?


Ok, chance 2.


Got it? The emergency exit door in the airport was locked with a big size steel lock. I just wonder how did they get the idea of locking the emergency exit. This is how things are.

October 21, 2007

Is it really necessary to show verbal aggressiveness?

I think Indian cricketers are putting up a bad show. Why should somebody show facial aggressiveness or be aggressive verbally? Actions of the game are the ones which are supposed to be spoken, rather than shouting or using abusive language on the other team.

Phlegmatism should be practised by our team. When they are on the international stage they need to follow the law and rules. If the other team resorts to verbal aggressiveness and uses abusive language the team is expected to lodge a compliant with the authorities. Or, if the example of Arjuna Ranatunga be taken, he has asked his entire team to leave the field quietly when Muttiah muralitharan was given no-ball thrice mentioning his action wasn't right.

Similarly our countrymen can simply walk away from the field saying they used abusive language rather than retaliating in the same fashion. If done so, what difference exists between them and us.

My fellow countrymen, we are professionals and lets be so.

October 10, 2007

What is BSI according to Germany?

What is BSI according to Germany?

BSI is a kind of organization in Germany which is equivalent to NSA in USA. It is trying to provide standards and guidelines to all the government organizations as well as private organizations in their country. The countrymen who designed Enigma now have an organization something like NSA. Does that mean we are going to see new algorithms replacing Triple-DES etc?

Also there is a new framework coming up from SOx especially for Europe called the EuroSOx. People argue it would be similar, however.

CEC - SIM v7.x?

Are you hanging with any version other than 7_1_1???? If you are then get ready to be completely outdated soon. Yes you got it right ... it Sun Identity Manager 8.0 set to release very soon.

I have written the new features of 7.1 after it got released. This time I have the privilege of writing about 8.0 even before its release. The top best feature of this version would be Role Management.

Features:

Flexible Role Modelling
Bi - Level RBAC
Business Roles
IT Roles
Also provision for Multilevel RBAC
Offers Role Subtypes, defaults being Business, IT, Application and Asset
New Sub-Types can be created
Extended attributes on Role Subtypes

Now you will also be able to search on Role Subtypes, for example "all application roles" etc.

New Role Features ...

Activation:
  • Required: Get activated directly
  • Conditional: Rule based, i.e. if the user object is getting an update and it requires few other privileges then it is allocated
  • Manual: Implicit
Role start date and End date: What other granularity can one ask for?

Role Change Approval Process: If the actual Role definition itself is set to change then it should go through an approval process.

These are very few of the amazing features of 8.0. Keep waiting for it to release.

SUN Identity Manager rocks.

LasVegas - Interesting facts

The casinos ...

1. Flamingo
2. Rio
3. Paris
4. Ballys
5. Ceasers
6. Harrahs

belong to One person. All these six are connected one to another via all modes, escalators, lifts etc and is called the LasVegas Strip.

The big three in Vegas are MGM, Ceasers, Bellagio. The musical fountain that shows up every evening at intervals of 10 mins is a feast to eyes. This is the only show that comes for free :-)

All remaining (Comedy, classic, nude) shows have a minimum entrance fee of $40.

CEC - The Professional Services Party

Wow ...

All these days it used to be like only me and harini working for SUN IdM PS-India and few interactions with people in the same in US. Only know by name.

Today Arun Shresta, my practice head threw a party to all the PS folks. I met, Rene Ugarte, Mark, Steve Hulme, Chris Timmerman - the geek, Tiffany Ryan, Greg Buchanan, Sharif, Manish Chopra and many other.

It was kind of home after meeting all these senior guys and having the tech talks with them.

The party went well, however being a vegetarian I dont think I had any much options. In a wonderful situation like this food was the only concern. Unimaginably bad. Well thats how the life of a Veggie would be in USA rather anywhere outside India.

CEC - Identity Management

Monday evening I attended the session on Identity managment. Johnny cope was there taking the session. It was supposed to be a deep dive session, however everyone started asking/discussing solutions to their client problems. However their team is currently, I was informed, are making a team which only takes care of preparing images and deploying on public access servers. Thus the presales guy who visits the client can directly login with his id and give them a demo. Also licenses to try the product online for a week or couple are being to be sold so that the clients can check the product for a while before taking the decision.

SUN Identity Manager rocks.

NetBEANS Plugin:

Many of us know the BPE will be scrapped off, phase wise and finally everyone is expected to use NetBeans to create all custom objects in Sun Identity Manager. Every version of NetBeans vs IdM war file there is a .nbm file that needs to be imported into the Netbeans. I got my hands dirty using the NetBeans 5.5 and SUN Identity Manager war file for 7.1.1. Its awesome to use Netbeans instead of BPE, except the heavy memory requirement NetBeans has.

Tuesday I would be attending wonderful sessions like RBAC, VIDT, Security Considerations for IDM etc. Will post it soon.

CEC - Indian Telecom scenario.

I attended a session on the telecom scenario in India with Vodafone being the case study. There are few amazing statistics that I would like to mention which I came to know.

  1. Vodafone has presence in 62+ countries
  2. 1.2 Billion population of India is almost greater than the population of both USA and UK combined
  3. Only 20% of Indians use mobile phones. (There may be a scenario that one person may have multiple connections too)
  4. 87.9% of the Mobile users in India use only Prepaid
  5. Indian operators are providing the cheapest call rates compared to the entire world
  6. The target by 2010 is that there would be 500Mn Mobile users in India
  7. Vodafone just by acquiring Hutch got 30Mn subscribers which is almost 13% of its worldwide subscription

Aren't there facts amazing.

Will keep posting.

October 8, 2007

First updates of CEC??? Nope Vegas First

Vegas ........ ah what a place?

The first thing one needs to know is .... "whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" is the quote here. Its a different world altogether a fantasy world. You never know when its night and when its a day. At night the city just looks like gold spread all over. If there is money flowing anywhere then it is here. People just spend money like anything. The description of Vegas can be given better by a poet or a story writer, for a person like me, its simply speechless.

SUN has organized the conference in Hotels Paris and Bally's. I stay in the later. This is just in front of the Ballagio where the eleven stand and watch the fountains after walking away with the 16 million dollars. I was just watching the same today.


Everyone I met, during my journey to Vegas asked me only one thing, "Conference at Vegas???". And I didn't know what to say. Whatever may be it, the place is a wonderful one to visit in one's lifetime.

Will keep posting.

October 3, 2007

SUN - CEC 2007

Just a week away from now is the SUN Customer Engineering Conference 2007 at Las Vegas. Are you coming? Well this is going to be another exciting event from SUN with around 3500 people around the world including employees, vendors, partners etc attending it.

My area of interest would be Identity Management and SOA.

The highlights are ...

1. Free certifications for Solaris, JCAPS, Java and many other
2. Lots of techno videos
3. Prizes for bloggers ...

Oh what not ... CEC 2007 has everything to offer. Hope to see/meet great people out there.
Keep checking for more on this event in the next week.

October 1, 2007

Google Apps Provisioning API V2.0

Google is providing an API for user provisioning into Google applications.

Google Apps allows website administrators to offer their users cobranded versions of a variety of personalized Google applications, such as Gmail. The API provides functions for creating, retrieving, updating and deleting user accounts, nicknames and email lists. With the help of this API one can code their custom adapters for Sun Identity Manager or management agents for Microsoft Identity and Integration Server.

Go ahead and read on ...

1. Provisioning Reference

2. Java based API reference

However the point of note is the Provisioning API is only available to Google Apps Premier Edition and Google Apps Education Edition partners.

September 30, 2007

Another Moment of Pride

I have been invited again to take a guest lecture on Identity Management at SCIT. This time it was really good to take the class as my experience gave the right touch. This is the ultimate joy I find, as I teach at the same place where I was once a student. Happy me :-)

September 27, 2007

Lord SriRam explains how tough it is on Earth

I don't know who is the author, however couldn't resist posting it here.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

The Lord surveyed the Ram Setu and said "Hanuman, how diligently and strenuously you and your vanara sena had built this bridge several centuries back. It is remarkable that it has withstood the ravages of the climatic and geographical changes over centuries. It is indeed an amazing feat especially considering the fact that a bridge at Hyderabad built by Gammon using latest technology collapsed the other day even before they could stick the posters on its pillars."

Hanuman with all humility spoke "Jai Sri Ram, it is all because of your grace. We just scribbled your name on the bricks and threw them in the sea and they held. No steel from TISCO or cement from Ambuja or ACC was ever used. But Lord, why rake up the old issue now."

Ram spoke "Well, Hanuman some people down there want to demolish the bridge and construct a canal. The contract involves lot of money and lot of money will be made. They will make money on demolition and make more money on construction. "

Hanuman humbly bowed down and said "Why not we go down and present our case"

Ram said "Times have changed since we were down there. They will ask us to submit age proof and we don't have either a birth certificate or school leaving certificate. We traveled mainly on foot and some times in bullock carts and so we don't have a driving license either. As far as the address proof is concerned the fact that I was born at Ayodhya is itself under litigation for over half a century, If I go in a traditional attire with bow and arrow, the ordinary folks may recognize me but Arjun Singh may take me to be some tribal and, at the most, offer a seat at IIT under the reserved category. Also, a God cannot walk in dressed in a three-piece suit and announce his arrival. It would make even the devotees suspicious. So it is dilemma so to say."

"I can vouch for you by saying that I personally built the bridge."

"My dear, Anjani putra, it will not work. They will ask you to produce the lay-out plan, the project details, including financial outlay and how the project cost was met and the completion certificate. Nothing is accepted without documentary evidence in India . You may cough but unless a doctor certifies it, you have no cough. A pensioner may present himself personally but the authorities do not take it as proof. He has to produce a life-certificate to prove that he is alive. It is that complicated."

"Lord can't understand these historians. Over the years you have given darshan once every hundred years to saints like Surdas, Tulsidas, Saint Thyagaraja, Jayadeva, Bhadrachala Ramdas and even Sant Tukaram and still they disbelieve your existence and say Ramayana is a myth. The only option, I see, is to re-enact Ramayana on earth and set the government records straight once for all."

Lord smiled "It isn't that easy today. Ravan is apprehensive that he may look like a saint in front of Karunanidhi. I also spoke to his mama Mareecha, who appeared as a golden deer to tempt Sita maiyya when I was in the forest and he said that he won't take a chance of stepping on earth as long as Salman Khan is around."

Jai Shree Ram

September 11, 2007

Six years passed - the stains of blood remain

Six long years have passed by and the sight of the twin towers raining to sand and dust is still clear. A day when the entire world was taken back by shock. God knows who are all the people involved in and out other than our times magazine cover photo guy with the long beard, Mr.Laden, one quick question ... what did you achieve?


It has been a tradition world wide to punish brutally the innocent for mistakes of few. What is everyone achieving by spilling out the blood of their brethren? Where are we going ahead in this world?

Columbus came in to find new places to have better world and we started a word called Global village only to live together in peace and prosperity but not to test our new shiny explosive inventions against one another.

We are trying to reach mars, why? So that we can introduce some kind of terrorism there?

A common man be an American, a Palestinian, a Pakistani, an Israealian or an Indian never want a war. People who are hungry dont need bullets, rather need something to eat and some love to share.

There is nothing one can achieve by waging wars, Ashoka taught us this lesson and we still seem not to be interested to learn.

Its time we make this world a wonderful place to live but not a park of landmines. Lets spread love.

My condolences to all those families who lost their loved ones and salute to all those firefighters and armed personnel who lost their lives helping in those situations.

September 6, 2007

One among the many good features of Sun Java Identity Manager 7.1

May be its too late to identify, however a good feature in the new release of Sun Java Identity Manager, v7.1 is ...
This warning message when you go ahead and click on the Launch Setup button is a very good feature. In previous versions generally, many people used to forget that they need to place the necessary jar files in the lib directory for the database setup to work. However now it clearly warns you about the same.

August 30, 2007

A Review on Debug pages of SUN Java Identity Manager

Sun Java Identity Manager provides a set of JSPs to debug the activities of the system. These are most of the times left unused. The functionalities provided are amazing.

I have completed a review on all of those and posted the doc on the web expecting people to give a read and comment.

August 20, 2007

Chakde India

There was a day, when I was one among many other citizens of India, commenting bitterly on the performance of our team at the world cup. Felt they do not have commitment nor interest. Oh one cannot find words of our feelings at that time and just only thinking that the 11 have made a mess.

Today watching the movie, Chakde India, I truly felt I was wrong in my thoughts. No one goes into a game to lose. The only difference is some get right directions to go ahead and some unfortunately are deprived of it. Everyone has ego. All of the 11 players are champions in their own states. Thus fail to either coordinate or give attention to others. May be the army's rule of Break and Build should be adopted for a team to succeed.

Every point in the movie only showed that TEAM WORK is the only key to succeed. I have really learnt my lesson out of this wonderful movie.

August 4, 2007

How to make the Windows XP desktop completely clean?

For all those who hate to keep icons on the desktop

Window XP allows us to completely keep our desktop completely clean, however leaves the Recycle bin. Its like having a wonderful house with a dustbin in the front of the house. The key to remove it is ...

1. Goto the registry.
2. Find the following entry
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/
CurrentVersion/explorer/Desktop/NameSpace"
3. There would be 3-4 entries.
4. Find the one which mentions about Recycle bin
5. Export it to some backup directory - This is a MUST
6. Now delete it
7. Thats it - Recycle bin is gone.

Disadvantage: You cannot see the recycle bin anywhere anymore. (Dont worry, it still exists.) To access it anytime, all you need to do is just double click on the registry file you saved and it appears back.

This info may be very old to all the geeks around, however.

July 31, 2007

Rising Rupee & The software Industry

The country is equally happy and sad about the rupee's value rising. All the people who are getting the money in form of $$$ are crying these days. There are few intelligent people who say, that software professionals now should work for six days a week. Few managers think that the salaries should be cut. Most companies think freshers are better, as the cost is low, and they should be hiring freshers like crazy.

These were the same people, who previously never were ready to give opportunities to freshers. I have few points to say/ask all these people who are trying to kill the happiness of IT staff and anticipate success.

1. Do you know how much bench are you maintaining?
2. Do you know how many people are just coming to office and spending time in lawns and cafeterias?
3. Do you know what are your stationary costs for every department?
4. Do you know how many people use laptops in the purpose they are meant to be used?
5. Do you know how many people make personal telephone calls from office?
6. Do you know if all your delivery managers are taking right decisions in sending people to onsite?
7. Do you know how much money is wasted in booking and cancellations of train and air tickets due to wrong decisions by senior management?
8. Do you know how much of money is wasted because of few processes not being automatized?
THE BIG QUESTION
9. Do you know why is the attrition rate so high in your organization?
10. Do you atleast realize that people leave only because of managers not for a name?
11. Do you know what is the cost implication if an employee resigns?
12. Do you have a check whether your managers are trying their best to retain people?
13. Do you have a check on your managers, whether they are acting with their intellects or acting with their egos, when dealing with their subordinates?
14. Do you know how much of money is being wasted because of mismanagement or wrong planning?

These are the areas where one should look to cut costs, mere increase of billable hours/working hours of employees doesn't suffice. On an average, in a reputed company in India, every employee works for more than 10 hours a day. That makes whooping 50 hours. All this time he is subjected to stress.

Companies I think should check how can they make the employees perform better, but not longer. This world is about working smartly, not the other way.

Lets try and make things better smartly, rather than just behaving like confused kids. All comments are welcome.

Reporting Solutions in ILM

Recently I came across a good article in PC World. It says ... MissionControl 2.2 is compatible with Version 1 of Identity Lifecycle Manager (ILM) and includes support for SQL Server 2005 to support its reporting features.

Give a read ...

July 6, 2007

Memory allocation in Tomcat Application Server

Longtime back I was told, if one needs to increase the memory pool size that can be occupied by the Tomcat app server, all we need to do is to tweak the catalina.bat file in the bin.

Just add -Xms A -Xmx A (where A denoted the number of Megabytes), in the catalina.bat file, at the end of line, where the java options are listed.

However from ver 5, its a little bit different and easy. All one needs to do is ...
Click on configure and then ....
Now specify the amount of memory allocation in the Maximum Memory Pool option. This will enable Tomcat to use more memory.

June 17, 2007

My Good Friend Rajesh R


My entrance into the Identity management space started first with training by a free lance SUN trainer, Rajesh R. (Still couldn’t figure out what that R is! J). Somehow, once after the training is done, I was the only person who was able to keep up a professional relationship with him, from my batch.

Wondering why I am writing about a friend of mine here?

He is a person, from whom, I have learnt that it shouldn't be our career or job that should control us, and rather it should be we who should be controlling them.

He is continuously on the move every week, training corporates, on Sun Clusters, Sun Identity manager etc. Later I started feeling a little jealous of him. You know why? He travels to different places, interacting with many different minded people and thus making a wonderfully large fraternity. If you ask most of the people in the Identity Management space in India, everyone knows him. This is what I always dreamt of, thus a little bit of that “J”.

This person, is not human, a proper AI based machine, working properly with TIME and CALENDER. He updates his blogs everyday, he writes his recordings/finding etc of every day in time. He has been helping every IDM guy/gal in the Indian subcontinent by either directly solving the problem or interconnecting people.

He is an amazing guy and I am very proud and happy to be his friend.

You may kindly visit his blog http://blogs.sun.com/rajeshr

Identity Management made my life

Wonder how a domain in the security compliance space, made one’s life? Read on …

Early June 2005, when I was working for GE Capital International services as a Security Specialist, I was given an offer, to move to Identity Management domain, which has just sprung up as a new practice in that company. I was wondering what that move can cause to my career. Always thought, a firewall would stay all the time as the technology exists but what is this IDM? However took a daring step to move into the domain. The next week I went to a training on the Sun Identity manager basics, IDM 2525, provided my Mr. Rajesh, a renowned trainer in the SUN Space. The first good relationship started with friendship with him. Later, other few members from Satyam technologies, who also attended the same training. Another friendship with the AVP, (GE) from Thailand, who clicked a photograph of mine with another girl (whom I don’t even know), assuming her to be my girl friend, funny!

Then started my troubles. The next three months we didn’t have any much work to do. Just going to gym and whiling out our time was the best work we had. People, who chose to stay back in the Infosec space, started getting good work and laurels too. Those made me feel that I was at a wrong place. Later at the end of September we finally kicked off with a small project. When I mean small, it was really small. Today as a consultant in the IDM space, I would say, the project could have been completed in two phases of maximum a month in total. One should believe that the project took five months almost, missing on all the dead lines.

Next came, my other good friend, Johny Cope as a trainer from Neogent Corp, USA, to train us on the advanced Sun IdM. I am proud to say, that I was the only person along with the, said to be my girl friend girl, to complete the entire training in my training. I owe to the girl, because without her encouragement and push, I wouldn’t have attended that training. Once after the training, I realized what I can do in this IDM space.

The next project I did, I alone completed it in around 45 days. The next one, rather small, I have completed in a week.

Still wondering, how IDM made my life? Yes coming to that. This lady, with whom my snap was clicked, became my good friend and my best team mate. Any work, we both used to complete in no time, just because of her analytical nature and her encouragement for me. She also helped me attend the advanced training. However suddenly she had to leave the company, and joined Deloitte. I started feeling the gape in my team, because without her I was alone.

Then I felt, how it would be if my best team mate, who understands me very well in almost every situation, becomes my partner for life! Pondered over it, and then felt we both should be together. Got married to the intelligent, analytical, friendly, cute, naughty girl, Harini. See now you understand how IdM made my life.

When it comes to IdM at least she is the best for me to suggest. And when it comes to life, she is my best. Thus I successfully made an IdM family. We both are currently working for SUN Microsystems as Consultants in the Identity & Access Management space.

June 15, 2007

Error Severity=???? Sun Identity Manager

Recently a friend of mine asked me what is the below error?

<ErrorMessage severity='error'>New employee number is not present in Oracle HR.

Reasoning:
Whenever, programmers use, log4j functionality in their code, you get these kind of error descriptions. The different types would be, Warning, Error, Critical etc.

Easy Implemenation tool for Sun Identity Manager - ViDT

Six months prior I think people were hearing something called VIP - Velocity Identity Package. This package, as announced, was supposed to be providing HR synchronization etc and many other things. After joining SUN I was lucky enough to get a feel of this product, currently called as ViDT.

Briefly ... The software provides you the following

1. The ability to run multiple instances of SUN IdM (SIM) of different versions at the same time

2. The ability to create and maintain multiple projects with multiple instances of IdM

3. Compatible with all releases of SIM

4. Creates the forms for you, if you feed in data

5. Creates the workflows for you if you feed in the required data

6. Creates all basic administrators etc required for any implementation

7. Creates all the required policies

8. Creates the Design documents

9. Creates the other Project documents

10. Finally bundles you all the code for deployment at the customer end

Boy, one has to get a touch with it to understand how easier the life becomes for a SIM implementor. That too, after the release of 7.1 with many other features ViDT seems to make life much better.

This is a invention of the Neogent Inc, which was acquired by SUN last year.

My Sojourn with MIIS

Microsoft Identity Integration Server: Another sweet product from Microsoft.

This is a product in the Identity Management space. To my knowledge, unlike many other products available today in the market, MIIS is home-made. Via this blog, I am trying to post the knowledge I have received from my one year old friendship with MIIS.

The top features:

1. A state based, Synchronization server.

2. A decent provisioning system.

3. As usual lucid to understand and work

4. As common, has a wonderful group of people working on this and sharing their ideas and solving problems @ MMSUG@yahoogroups.com

5. An inbuilt tool to write your code and thus reduce your pain of writing code

6. Biztalk enabled workflows

7. Doesnt do a RIP v1 kind of data routing.

8. Precendence based Synchronization

9. Has connectors to many known databases and LDAPs

Bad Features:
> Complete Microsoft shop
Means, you have to use all MS products only to implement this product.

I feel, I am still missing something.

Well, this system works primarily as a Metadirectory server. Later it was modified to have the functionalities of a provisioning system.


The architecture:
The application MIIS is at the center, with its own repository called Metaverse. Now it gets connected to different data resources and creates virtual spaces (tables in the MIIS SQL Database) to edit the data that is being imported from the end data resources. To be clear, as any and every data manipulation that has to be done cannot be done on the end resource, we need a place where we can do that. That is called the Connector Space.

For example, if a particular table in an end resource contains 15 columns and we need to work on those fifteen, then we import all these values into the connector space. Later depending upon our needs we would import only the required amount of columns into the metaverse-the main MIIS Repository.

One life Cycle:

End DB -> MIIS -> End DB

Lets talk about a cycle. Data is pulled from the end Authoritative database. The data entirely, will be pulled into a table called mms_connectorspace (table contains data from all data sources, uniquely identified by the dataSource identification number). From here the business rules start getting applied. All rules, related to filtering ids or creating new values or making logical decision etc are worked on this data and final output data is pushed into the Metaverse. To implement all the required resource specific business logic, one implements a DLL for every resource. Now that the data is in the Metaverse, the other logic, like provisioning and deprovisiong and synchronization comes into picture. To handle all this, a special rules extension DLL called the Metaverse Rules Extension DLL is written. This takes care of the afore mentioned. Provisioning or the data being written is written only to the end resource connector space, i.e. the mms_connectorspace with the required id. Then upon export, with specific business logic DLL is configured for every resource, to take the data from the mms_connectorspace table and write it to the endDB.

This is the story.

The advantages in MIIS

1. You get most of the code easily written, because of the reference

2. There is a particular file that can write code for you

3. There are a wonderful set of people at MMSUG@yahoogroups.com just waiting to help.

This relatively, costs you lesser than remaining Identity Management Products.

For those who dont know much about Identity and Access Management, just one line, In the last RSA Security Conference, it was Bill Gates who came up the stage not to announce any other language or operating system, however for their new product ILM 2007 - Identity Life Cycle Manager (MIIS + CLM +++)

June 5, 2007

TIM vs SIM - A Snippet

I was reading a blog called "Identity Crisis" in Sun blogs site. Found a wonderful article on TIM vs SIM, related to Gartner's ratings. I donot want to replicate the content, however provide the link for you all to read.

http://blogs.sun.com/IdentityCrisis/entry/like_how_lame_is_that

Finally, Air Deccan proves itself

To my previous blog on the low cost flier, this is an Add-on

As every one now know, Mr.Mallya has taken 26% stake in AirDeccan, it proves that Mr. Gopinath has created the right impact in the industry. There was a review published in Times of India, if I could write it here ...

Air Deccan out numbered King Kingfisher in all aspects like, number of Flights, Destinations covered, Pilots and crew employed etc. That was really good to see.

To reiterate it was because of companies like AirDeccan, we have a drastically and positively changed air travel scenario in India.

Sun Identity Manager 7.1 is out

Sun Identity Manager 7.1 is the latest version of the Sun Java System Identity Manager product offering, augmenting the Periodic Access Review (PAR) feature, auditing capabilities, and adding/updating resource adapters. This update improves upon the industry-leading Identity Manager 7.0 solution with:

# Periodic Access Review Enhancements

* Dashboard view
* Remediation request during PAR
* Entitlement history

# Advanced Auditing Capabilities

* Policy violation prioritization
* Audit policy scan scheduling
* "Test" mode ability for audit policy scans (What-If analysis)
* Audit Log Publishers (JMX, JMS, and Scripted)

# Resource Adapters Additions and Updates

* Hybrid LDAP/RACF Mainframe Adapter (New)
* SAP GRC Access Enforcer (Virsa) (New)
* Lotus Notes 7.0 (updated)
* PeopleSoft HRMS 9.0 (updated)
* BMC Remedy Service Desk 7.0 (updated)
* Novell GroupWise 7.0 (updated)

# Other Improvements to:

* Administrative and End User Interface
* Identity Manager IDE
* Role delegations

# Bug Fixes and Platform Support Updates

So all set to rock with the latest one.

May 23, 2007

How to Reserve things, even before you are born?

For Indians reading this, I am sure, after reading the title they understand the topic being pondered upon here. For others, I am trying to represent my ideas about the Caste/Religion/Sex based Reservation system in India.

Longtime back, something happened in India, that there had to be this system brought in so that the poor and downtrodden people can be economically and socially be uplifted. The thoughts and ideas for this procedure to be implemented were noble at the time of Indian Independence.

Current Scenario: {Kindly let me know if you see any positives}

1. The children of a person who is working as a Judge in a district bench, get seats in engineering colleges under the reserved category. His wife, works for a large bank and gets promoted as an officer under the reserved category.

2. A son of an employee, who works as a senior employee in a Port Trust gets admitted into Engineering college under the reserved category. Never even thinks of completing the engineering.

3. A son of a farmer, gets admitted to an engineering college, under the reserved category and also claims to be under the poverty line category. Thus the government pays the fees for him. However, the guy wears a gold chain, a golden bracelet and wears only branded jeans and excellent watches. Never cares to come to the college. I don't know if he has cleared his exams before the stipulated eight years.

4. A servant maid at my village, still is working in the same fashion and her kid is playing on the road.

5. People in few places like remote parts of Rajasthan etc, still have caste feelings. The previously downtrodden are downtrodden even today.

The system of caste-based reservation has never given anyone any privilege. It has only benefited few corrupt politicians. They are working on the same principles of the East India Company sarkar - "Divide and Rule". I see, personally these days, I mean to say, my generation of young people do not have anything called - ill-feelings for any caste or creed or sex. These days everyone are united in our common interests. However, these politicians are making a mess about it.

Once in Times of India, there was a quote - For every Individual himself/herself is the biggest minority.

Considering that statement, I really wonder, why people need to claim as minority. Even if a Prime minister of a country is alone, all by himself, then he is downtrodden and will be attacked socially for nothing. So everyone of us need to realize that individually we are all in the minority sector and providing reservations for anyone doesn't solve any problem

There are many people who are below the poverty line, and many just above it. I think those are the ones who need some reservation to eat, to study, to live etc irrespective of their caste/religion/creed/sex.

Also this system, shouldn't continue from a person's birth to his/her death. There should be a day when he/she should be asked to live on his/her ability.

"In Business - there is no free lunch"

Its better we all think about these things once in a while. All the visitors are requested to post their comments here. Lets dream and work towards having a India - where only skill matters, nothing else.

May 20, 2007

My thoughts about the low cost flier - Air Deccan

Note: I am not a frequent flier, however!

Talking a little bit about, what I hear these days, most of the times, in the airports.

"Ahh ... next time I am not flying AirDeccan!!!!!"
"Next time you book airdeccan ... you are fried ..."

I really wonder, why people says such things. To be precise, in the world of Telecoms, its Reliance and in the Indian airline industry, its Airdeccan who have brought drastic changes. Longtime ago, Airlines, used to be a reach only to corporates and guys with big bucks. Today, every common man, is able to fly.

Evaluations: I have flew with AirDeccan, Indian Airlines, KingFisher in the domestic and AirFrance in the international.

1. Kingfisher First: Excellent in Hospitality, Timings, Fine food, and gorgeous Air Hostesses. Well, Timing is the main thing which i think every business man cares according to personal priorities. Truly, no one boards the flight to stare at the AirHostesses. Food??? I dont think it matters in domestic airways as almost all the flight durations are just 2-3 hours at the maximum. Now whatz left, ah, the TVs and the shows. Fair, I have seen, either in an early morning flight or in the evening flights, people only tend to sleep, after a stressful day or a start of thestressful day. All this for atleast a minimum amount of Rs.6500 (approx)

2. Indian Airlines: One word to say, First the flight attendants' white shirts need a decent wash. Thats it.

3. AirDeccan: Lets talk about the negatives first. I found only onething irritating in AirDeccan - the Delay time. Rest is great. Precisely, the leg room is relatively better. The flight durations too are fine. Efficiency of pilots too is fine. Well, coming to what I drink and eat over the flight duration. Well, one gets decent food served, on purchase ofcourse, packed and prepared by Cafe Coffee Day. Personally, I had the Veg Combo many times, which contains, a cheese Sandwich, a cake, two Chatpatas and all this for Rs.70.

So, I think I am p.fine, if I get a flight trip for Rs.2000 and a meal for Rs.70 and a one hour delay in the schedule. Infact most of the common people are ok with it. Even then people talk whatever possible, about AirDeccan.

Ex: I was travelling to hometown in Train; A co-traveller said, "I dont even know if Air Deccan flight will ever fly!", Guy doesnt have money/situation/or whatever may be the reason, to travel in II AC in train atleast, thus shouldnt be commenting about the pocket friendly :-) Air Travel provider of the country.

The only reason I am writing it here is, we all shouldnt comment on someone who has brought drastic changes in a particular domain of the market, rather we better try to understand how is it possible.

Kindly post your comments.

April 26, 2007

SUN is POSITIVE on Gartner's scale


Its certainly a moment of joy, when Gartner has listed SUN as an overall POSITIVE. These days still, there are people who talk a little bit against the Identity Manager product of SUN. There is a wonderful response to such opinions out there @ http://blogs.sun.com/superpat/entry/sun_identity_manager_comes_out

However, I couldn't resist picking up a comparison sheet from the same blog, for people who however couldn't navigate to the link. It's a thorough comparison of products from six vendors - Courion, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Sun and Thor/Accelerate.

April 18, 2007

10 most Important people in the Identity Space

One of my friends, Subhash Nukala, working for PwC, UK wrote a comment on my article on IdM. I felt, the comment should be actually highlighted rather than just being left out as a comment. Thus publishing the same here which describes the ten most important personalities in the Identity Management Space. The same can be found out @ http://blogs.zdnet.com/digitalID/?p=24

Few of my blogs may contain few ideas common to some other blogs published elsewhere before, however, there are good number of people who come here who don't know about those :-)
_____________________________
The topic of the “10 most important people” in the identity space came up the other day, and it got me to thinking. Accordingly, I put together my list:

1. Jamie Lewis, CEO, Burton Group: Jamie is always at the top of his game; staying on top of identity trends. In addition, he and Craig Burton wrote the original whitepaper outlining the concept of a “meta-directory” - which essentially gave birth to the identity industry.

2. Kim Cameron, Architect for Identity, Microsoft: Besides building a meta-directory that Microsoft bought (now Active Directory), Kim started the “Laws of Identity” conversation that has resulted in InfoCards in Vista, and multiple conversations around “user-centric” identity.

3. Sara Gates, VP of Identity, Sun Microsystems: I’m pinpointing Sara, but this is really aimed at the entire Waveset team (which was acquired by Sun). That acquisition (and the people that came with it) was a turning point in Sun’s identity management business.

4. Michael Barrett, ex-President of The Liberty Alliance: Michael shepherded Liberty through its early years and represents all of that early, hard work that came out of Liberty and directly contributed to SAML2.0 - which became a point of convergence that accelerated all federated identity initiatives.

5. OASIS, standards body: Alright, so its not really a person, but when a standard comes out of OASIS (be it WS-Security or SAML) it gets traction, and identity would not be where it is today without them.

6. Mike Beach, Boeing: Mike was one of the earliest adopters of SAML, but that’s not why Mike is on this list. Mike is here to represent all of the engineers working inside of the enterprise that slave away day after day trying to make all of this identity “stuff” work.

7. Regulators and Legislators: Again, not a single person, but a group of people. Whether its the FFIEC (with their guidance for online authentication in a banking or brokerage context), or Congress (with the requirements of SOX and GLB), these folks drive identity technology forward, even if unknowingly.

8. The “little guys”: By “little guys,” I mean all of the smaller companies and developers that are out there innovating in one way or another. This list is long (and this is not inclusive): Sxip, Johannes Ernst, A10, Identity Engines, Trusted Network Technologies, Applied Identity, InfoExpress, Prodigen….it goes on and on.

9. The Kid in Nebraska: He’s probably 17 or 18, and he doesn’t know it yet, but he’s going to come up with the identity *application* that the entire world adopts.

10. The Readers of Digital ID World: Okay, this is as much a “thank you” as anything. We’ve been doing this since 2002, and without our readers (vendors, enterprises and individuals) we wouldn’t know anything.

That’s my Top 10 Most Important Pepole in Identity. So tell me, who did I miss?

April 17, 2007

Different Mindsets

Today, someone posted a comment on my blog related to "Identity Management". The comment was ... " get a life dude.....we know u copied all tht frm google.. ". First of all I am very thankful to that Anonymous person, that he was here.

This unfortunately is the mindset of people. I was wondering about Mr/Miss Anonymous's knowledge on IdM and their understanding about my experience in the same. Anyway, if you Anonymous reading this, please let me know your email, I would mail to you. I am a person who believes seriously in science and thus believe in discussing things, rather than just airing out opinions.

April 11, 2007

What Precisely is Identity Management?


“The human experience of IDENTITY has two elements: a sense of belonging and a sense of
being separate.” - Salvador Minuchin, 1974

Identity management technology is ideally suited to automating processes that enable Sarbanes Oxley compliance. It specifically addresses security processes associated with establishing “adequate internal controls” around financial reporting, as required by SOx section 404(a). By mapping these processes as well as internal security policies to automated identity management, enterprises can leverage highly efficient and cost-effective technology frame-works for improving security and ensuring compliance. In addition, the right identity management solution can bring about greater operational efficiencies in general, and provide a significant return on investment for the enterprise.

Drivers for Identity Management
• Organizational Efficiency. Enable transactions and person-to-person communication.
• Competitive Advantage. Capturing new or larger shares of markets and enhancing company position against competitors.
• Security. Enable authorized access and prevent unauthorized access to information and services
• Speed of Reaction to Change. Mergers, reorganizations, departmental moves.
• Fraud Prevention. Hard to quantify, but can clearly provide major savings.
• Consistent Treatment of the Individual. “End-to-end” management of employees, “single view of the customer,” “joined-up government.”
• Integrated Information Infrastructure. Enable move away from “information silos” and “IT-processing chimneys.”

Real world Examples:
An Indian Office of a top US company, paid salary continously for six months after an employee left the organization.

In one of my previous organization's, the email id of my colleague who left the company existed for almost eight months after he left.

Similarly, in every organization, the current approaches to User/Identity management are crude and fail to provide complete security. A one time Provisioning and one time deprovisioning of identities, with complete auditing facilities for every account created or deleted will be the better solution for the existing problems. This is nothing but Identity Management.

This Domain majorly is composed of the following technologies/domains

1. LDAP/Databases
2. Identity Management
3. Access Management
4. Federation

Product Companies:
The top company for IdM, not to boast but a fact is SUN Microsystems. To see the players in the IdM market and thier positioning, try to google for "Gartner's Magic quadrant for User Provisioning".

I shall try to provide some slides in the near future on the same topics. Meanwhile, enthusiasts are request use the most powerful knowledge tool - GOOGLE.

April 7, 2007

Why India is still a developing country?

This article came as a email forward to me. I couldn't resist myself posting it here.

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house. Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other grasshoppers demanding that grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter. Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper. The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance) . Opposition MP's stage a walkout.Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among ants and grasshoppers.

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]", with effect from the beginning of the winter.

Arjun Singh makes Special Reservation for Grass Hopper in educational Insititutions & in Govt Services.

The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it "a triumph of justice". Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice'. CPM calls it the 'revolutionary resurgence of the downtrodden' Koffi Annan invites the grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.

Many years later...The ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi billion dollar company in silicon valley.100s of grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India ...

As a result of loosing lot of hard working ants and feeding the grasshoppers India is still a developing country .....

April 4, 2007

Indians (almost) never Change

Note: I accept, myself, I am certainly not completely perfect.

I have been pondering since years if most of my country men, could every be more courteous in the way they behave with one another, understand their limits, talk properly, interact, be open minded? However, its been long I have been craving for such an environment, where its utopia. Finally I joined SUN Microsystems. I was wondering about the environment I am going to get and expected a lot.

However, Indians are Indians. I still find the following even here.

1. They pull out chairs at your table, even without asking you
2. They stand next to your cubicle and start shouting over their phones without even bothering about others
3. People group at cubicles and start jokes, babble and very ugly is they start speaking aloud in thier regional languages.
4. Latest incident: My colleague, kept a cup of tea, in the microwave for heating. A lady came, pulled her cup out and heated her cup of tea and then kept the cup back and left. I cant even describe what an action this is.

Can we ever ever change???????

My Visit to Symbiosis


Its a moment of pride. I was invited by Symbiosis Center for IT, to deliver a lecture on Identity and Access Management. I was delighted about it. I was there on 31st March at SCIT, Pune. Spoke about almost every piece of detail related to IdM. However, as everyone understands, IdM is all about compliance and talking rules, especially listening such stuff, you know becomes boring. I am sure the students were a little bit patient to hear all that.

However, it was a great feeling, to lecture at a place, where I was a student longtime back. Hope to have such many other momentous occassions.

March 25, 2007

Openings @ SUN 4 IdM Profs

My current company, SUN Microsystems, is interested to hire candidates for the Identity Management space. Experienced and Interested professionals, in the same domain, may kindly send their resumes to dresesve@yahoo.com

First one here

This being my first post, I want to write a few lines about myself here. I am InfoSec enthusiast. I have started my career on the same lines in 2004 with GE. There after a while, I have moved into Identity Management. This domain, once I really started working, I understood, is really enticing. Later I have joined Wipro, moved to Ilantus, and now go settled in SUN Microsystems.

The journey was short but is filled with lot of mixed experiences. Especially the journey with Ilantus, which you may read in the other Blog.