Identity, Access, and Authorization, Oh My: Checking in with The Fates at Miami University
As in previous years, The Fates and other key team members who work on the periphery of the program met in June to participate in their annual Advance. Let's see what the team is up to.
Identity, Access, and Authorization, Oh My: Checking in with The Fates at Miami University
As in previous years, The Fates and other key team members who work on the periphery of the program met in June to participate in their annual Advance. Let's see what the team is up to.
Since it’s been a while since we checked in on the IAM Program and its progress, IT Services thought it was high time for a peek behind the scenes at what The Fates (our affectionate team name for the IAM gurus) are up to these days.
Current state solidified at yearly IAM Advance
As in previous years, The Fates and other key team members who work on the periphery of the program met in June to participate in their annual Advance. The nomenclature here is important—notice even in our language, we’re moving forward, not back.
“When we first had the idea about an all-day strategy session just for IAM at Miami, we called the activity a ‘retreat,’” explained project manager Erin Mills. “But [CISO] John Virden, with his military experience, playfully suggested we weren't retreating! We were advancing. I immediately loved the concept behind this name change and rebranded that first session and all subsequent ones as an ‘Advance’ rather than a retreat. We were and still are advancing IAM at Miami, not retreating from it!”
This year, the conversation focused less on looking to the future and more about the current status of our identity governance and administration (IGA) tool implementation – after all, a complete picture of where we’re sitting right now is just as important as a plan for where we’re going.
Our previous IAM infrastructure was a suite of homegrown tools that had been retro-fitted to accommodate growth throughout the years as technology became more advanced and access to systems became more important for learning and work. Now, we are using an IGA tool designed to connect all of those once-disparate systems, and it’s allowing us to do things we hadn’t before. We have introduced several new affiliations, helped our business partners provide access to university users when they need it, and sunsetted aging infrastructure.
The past several years have been a huge accomplishment for The Fates! As always, we will be updating our timeline on the IAM site – so keep your eyes peeled for that in the coming weeks.
IAM victory: Support tools new and old
In addition to growing into the modern IGA tool, the team has also revamped several support tools that allow IT Help, second-line technology support folks, and other solver teams across the university to provide better support for our users.
The IAM Portal, in particular, is a Miami-built application (separate from RapidIdentity) that gives support teams access to several important functionalities, namely the management of courtesy profiles (formerly courtesy accounts) and, coming soon, diagnostic support data intended to help solver teams see key information inside of users’ accounts that will help them work through problems more quickly and efficiently. (More about that at a later date: Stay tuned!)
True glow-up in the confidence department
We’re not just talking the talk, now. We’re walking the walk—and the team is growing in confidence every day.
“I came into this role with a good bit of technical experience, but IAM has a way of showing you how much you didn't know existed,” said IAM solution engineer Josh Senn. “There were entire sides of this discipline I didn't even know to ask about when I started. What feels different now is that I trust my instincts on the platform more. I don't second-guess myself on RapidIdentity the way I used to and when I do hit a wall, I know that I can reach out to the team for help.”
The team members are always looking for ways to improve—not only in the actual bits and bobs of IAM, but in how they track work and how they work together as a group.
“While it can sometimes feel chaotic to change up the way we track and report on the work the team is doing, it has been an enjoyable experience to see the improvements we have made,” Mills said. “Having the autonomy to try new methods of team organization has been a powerful tool the team has put to great use! It's allowed us to do what makes sense and make small tweaks as necessary to fine tune the performance of the team.”
Mills also made sure to note the growth she’s seeing in the folks running the show.
“As Josh and Tim gain confidence in how Identity is and should be implemented at Miami, I've also been seeing their understanding of the IAM industry grow,” she said. “Their gained knowledge, experience and confidence really shows when we speak with vendors and our peers in higher ed. They know their stuff!”
Celebrating the IAM journey
When we began this adventure in 2021, we said: You can’t spell Miami without IAM. And that has never been truer! We are moving forward, advancing even, and continue to make improvements to our infrastructure—one affiliation, UniqueID, and integration at a time!
“We each bring something different to the table, and I've learned to lean on that rather than try to work through everything alone,” Senn said. “There is still a long way to go but keeping that in mind is part of what makes this work fun. I am quite proud of the work that our team has accomplished so far and I look forward to what's next.”