Interview with Jackson Shaw, Quest Software

Got it. This is Jackson Shaw of quest Jackson in your keynote yesterday, right? You chose as a topic, the, from poet by frost poem, by frost, the line, we have promises to key. I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep right. Implying that the identity industry has promises to keep and still has quite a ways to go. What promises and how many miles, What promises and how many miles?

Well, I, I, I think the, the thing that I was thinking was that a lot of times we get ourselves thinking that we've accomplished so much and, and there's not like that much more to go. But, you know, when you look at some of the things that people are talking about today that are important to them, like cloud computing, for example, like Federation, we still haven't achieved some of the basic things like, you know, really good logging, compliance capabilities in, in our products, we haven't achieved, you know, a great identity and access management infrastructure in our companies.

And really for us to take advantage of a lot of the directions that we're moving, we, we have all of these things still to continue to do. And that's my, my, you know, sort of from the poem, the promises to keep, we still have a long road ahead of us. We've come a long way, but let's not forget the fact that there's still a long way to go. And a lot more, lot more things for us To do. And now companies are heading for the cloud. Doesn't it sort of seem that the goal is moving even further away.

Well, in, in some ways, you know, I, I, I, I think that a lot of companies are struggling with first of all, what is a cloud, right. And, you know, the models of the cloud, you know, there was someone who said, you know, if the cloud is not just a server with a long extension cord on it, so people have different views on it and have different thoughts on it.

And I, I think that's part of the thing that's so to speak clouding a lot of the issues around this. So yeah, I think, I think there's a, a lot to go yet. There Quest seems to be on a, kind of a buying spree now, acquiring companies, right. And left. Where do you actually hand intend to take the company in the identity and access space? Right.

Well, just on the buying spree part, the, the company has had an acquisition strategy for many years. It isn't just recently, but maybe because we're, we've made a very strategic bet on identity and access management. So just with respect to that, part of the ways that, that we could fill the gaps that we perceive in the market, when we talk to our customers is either through, you know, increased bets on development or increased bets via acquisition. So that's definitely one of the, one of the ways that we're, we're sort of achieving our goal.

And, and I think our basic goal is that there's been a bit of a vacuum. If you look at what the market has gone through, Noel's been acquired. And there's a lot of, you know, what's gonna happen with Noel, the whole sun Oracle thing that's going on right now, again, a lot of questions, potential vacuum there. And then there are a lot of issues that aren't being, you know, kind of looked at in, in, in a broader perspective, like privileged identity management, which was one of the acquisitions we just made of EDMC.

So I think for us, it's, it's, the acquisitions have been a means towards an end, but, and that end is really about us spending a lot more money to, to, to take. I am in a more strategic direction. From our perspective, There has been talk of identity being dead or companies shifting their emphasis away from identity access management. Microsoft is one of the candidates where nobody seems to know what identity is going to be playing. What kind of role identity will play in their future strategy. Right.

At tech, the quest representative actually stood up and said, we are increasing our investment in identity and access Management. Yes. Yes.

Why, why is this well, are you just going against the trend? No, I mean, I wouldn't, I mean, I don't know the context of the statement identity is dead.

I mean, certainly I can, I can suppose that as identity matures. I mean, the ultimate goal is that this becomes subsumed more and more within products within other parts, like operating system in the cloud, for example. So identity isn't seen as, you know, a big thing that has to be addressed. So from that perspective, I hope, you know, we're gradually moving in that direction. Do I think identity is dead as a problem itself or a problem space?

I don't, I don't think that's the case at all. Certainly not with the customers that I'm talking to when people have the problems. And as long as people have problems, they'll be companies like quest trying to solve those problems.