Important developments in IdM Space

The past couple of weeks have been witness to important developments in the IdM (Identity Management) space.

The one that got highly publicized was Oracle's acquisition of Oblix for an undisclosed sum. This surprised me, for I always thought that Microsoft may acquire Oblix.
The second one that did not get enough publicity was BMC's acquisition of Open Network.
The third one that was perhaps downplayed, was CA's acquisition of privately held mainframe security company Infosec (makers of the product eTrust cleanup).

These acquisitions have again vindicated the stand taken by market analysts that IdM products will see a round of consolidation. Almost every major analyst ranging from Burton Group to Gartner group had done this prediction and almost every big player (except Microsoft) has tread the line of acquisition so far:

• IBM acquired Access 360
• CA acquired Netegrity
• Sun acquired Waveset
• HP acquired TruLogica

However, the event that caught my attention was Novell's announcement of Novell Virtual Directory Services. What makes it different from other Virtual Directory vendors is that, Novell plans to release it specifically for developer usage. This again goes to prove the point that virtual directories are meant to co-exist with enterprise directories.