CA Identity Suite [EOL] Reviews

I find the UI much simpler than the previous version. The documentation in the current version is better as well, even though the documentation is still a bit confusing.

Policy Express is now included in the UI, which saves time and effort, however the analysis and basis of the policy express is still complex. People who are used to different technologies that have more linear layout may find it difficult.

For now, we are able to synchronize passwords; the only problem we can see are some issues with monitoring with multiple components. With the password synch there is no way for me to find out whether it’s working, so the log file will only get updated if someone tries to change their password, which hits the data centre, and then logs it. So if nobody changes their password that way there’s no way to monitor whether the components are actually working.

It would be nice to integrate IS with other technologies – other HR systems like Oracle or other similar products. SiteMinder, for example, can integrate with third party agents, but we cannot set an endpoint with an Oracle HRIS system in Identity Suite. So there is additional work to do.

For SiteMinder it would be nice if they fixed the reporting server- the main issue is that it is connected to the policy server, so if the reporting database goes down the policy server goes down. The solutions for reporting make it difficult in terms of the reporting database, given what that database does. There comes a questions – will it be business-wise smart to have failover for the reporting server? Just for us to have high HA for our setup, I’d require that my reporting server be high HA as well. There should be a different means for us to get our metrics. It shouldn’t be complex.

So far it is stable.

We are running an HA system – the only problem with Identity Suite is how to integrate multiple systems. The connection express provides multiple solutions, however integrations with other products such as HR systems is complicated. There is some difficulty setting up integrations with other products outside the CA Suite, partly because of the documentation. No straightforward documentation – unless you’re very familiar with the documentation you might have difficulty scaling it.

If we’re talking level two or three or up it’s fine, but the problem is with level one. Even though you give a description of the issue – e.g. when we turned on advanced logging where the server goes up and down. We specified that they wouldn’t see any problems in the trace logs, and they kept asking for logs which were useless in this case because it was a crash. We needed to reference the issue in the secure dump files.

It took two weeks to get an answer which we had to escalate a to a higher tier resource. They tend to follow a generic script – they can ask for all those logs even though the logs are not related to the issue itself. So the initial service can take a very long time, and sometimes we have to escalate to our sales rep just to get answers.

For R12 SiteMinder and some of the updates for advanced authentication. It was a bit complex because due to the nonlinear nature of the documentation- the issue is not related necessarily to the setup itself. It also goes back to the issue of integrating with other apps – that’s where the problems lie.

SiteMinder is 8/10, especially with the release of R12. They included SaaS in the SiteMinder setup, so you don’t have to extend the policy server. You can use the same one as web service protection, and includes coverage for the proxy server.

For Identity Manager, I’d give it 5/10 process wise it’s stable but they need to come up with better instructions on how to integrate it with different types of data sources. It goes up and down rather than endpoint to endpoint; when you do a configuration if the GUI would be much simpler like how SiteMinder creates integrations it would be easier. It is not intuitive, so if you miss a part with the creating of the rules, it’s complex.

Have a strong case study on how the organization is handling different use cases and how to best implement the use cases.