On Monday the 23rd of March, Microsoft announced that it would - again - delay the launch of ILM 2, the "Identity Lifecycle Manager". The release was now pushed back one whole year, to give Microsoft more time to "validate ILM in long-running live deployments before release". As can be expected, this announcement has caused a considerable amount of reactions, ranging from delight to frustration. The blogosphere and newswires soaked up the news and were buzzing with comments, and even outright speculation.
Kuppinger Cole has been asked by journalists to provide an opinion as well, and after some time of talking to different parties and watching the reactions, and circling back to Microsoft, we wanted to give our quick take on how the product actually stands within its competitive field, what this delay is about and what it may mean for customers, the industry and Microsoft itself. As of 17 April 2009, Microsoft has announced a new name for what used to be ILM “2” – it is hence to be known as “Forefront Identity Manager”.
