This time, Gartner was able to beat last year’s delay: the results of their 2015 research became available in… March 2016. The “Magic Quadrant for Identity, Governance and Administration” is dated February 29, which is some kind of a record: you cannot release it later if you want to stay with winter months. And the next three reports will be released earlier for sure, just because the next February 29 will be in 2020.
From the main theme of this report we can formulate the following: uncertainty (the exact word inside several vendors’ reviews, including Courion, Omada and Oracle).
Many vendors are going through a process of change (Dell/EMC merger, CA acquisition of IDMLogic and Oracle reorganization and realignment, Micro Focus significant transformation, etc.), so analysts are not certain where it is all going. Gartner is saying, “don’t shoot the messenger if it all doesn’t go according to plan”.
I’ve never seen a report with so many political phrases like “until the dust settles”, “significant disruption”, “started to revitalize”, “expect to improve”, “looking for a new approach”, “if properly executed”, etc. May be Gartner was influenced by very lively 2016 Presidential Election in the United States, and that’s why this year’s report is even more entertaining than last year.
To read the full analysis, please check the attached PDF: My analysis of Gartner Magic Quadrant for IGA 2016
As I mentioned in last year’s analysis: please read carefully what Gartner wrote about each of the vendors represented in MQ, and recommend all of your customers TO READ IT TOO. You can find a lot of nuggets between the lines. Location of a particular vendor in MQ could be deceiving, especially if you do not take into the account the size of the potential customer and its IGA maturity.