This is identity at the center. OK? We're here at the identity here in Oslo, Norway. Are you laughing at me already? I'm just starting. I'm just starting and Denise is already laughing at. Me. Hi, My name's Yanni. I'm here at Identity here Oslo. And, well, there's one reason I came here. I'll leave it to you to figure out what it is. So hi, my name is Stig Severson.
I've been in the identity space for 16 years, subject lead for in the Central Bank of Norway, attending the identity Bureau for the X amount of time, having a beer, having a good times with all my identity friends. So thank you. Hi, I'm Sir Alba. I work as a security engineer for Space Norway. I have a little bit of experience in identity and this is my first identity beer. Hi, I'm Lars Rawlinson. I'm an independent contractor and I am I've been there in the business for 25 years.
I come to the entity Beer here to see if I can find an interesting people to talk to, have some good ideas about I am and sometimes I find them. Hi, I'm Espen Bago, and I'm here because, well, what I do is identity beer and I am, of course. You've been doing it for a while. I've been doing that for a while. It's been my fifth year and he's the man. Everybody knows this guy. That's the benefit of starting something, right.
And you know, if you look around here and you see that in the background, it's, it's a nice place to be, very friendly place to be. And that's, that's really the nice thing with it. But everyone is so appreciative of being involved and being part of this. All right. So I'm here with my friend, new friend Sarah from Zurich. And we're here at the first identity here that I've ever been to. I think it's the first identity here you've been to. Also my first one. Yeah, definitely.
So, well, I always like to discover the faces behind the identity space, right? Who are these people? So go who is Sarah? How did you get into identity? What's your background? Your origin story? So background actually is, yeah, like many things. So how I get an identity, maybe I'll start with that one. Actually it was like, like very spontane. So I, I really like to work with people.
So I mean, The thing is always you, you're asking yourself what do you want to do in life, which job you want to do, right? You said I want to be an identity and access management person when you were born. To be honest, not no, to be honest not actually. It was like very spontane. So I at first did an apprenticeship, then I studied like economics and then I work for also in a part of the IT and Dutch. And then I said, OK, I really like that job, but it was not that much with the people.
And I'd really like to interact with people, to talk to people, to make people's life better. And so then I applied for a head hunting position and one customer of, of myself was one smaller consulting company in Germany, an identity. And that was actually my customer. So I had, I called him and he just did an appointment and he said, yeah, OK, so so come on, maybe we need some people we can talk. And I said, OK, sure. And I, yeah, was on side with the appointment.
And yeah, actually. So I had the appointment with the with the CEO, really nice person. I also still in contact with him. Wait, so you were So you joined a head hunting firm? Basically a placement. Firm. Looking for. For. Firm people for jobs and you found this company, you're like, oh, that sounds like a way I want. No, actually not. So it was a customer and I want actually, I wanted really to to sell people for them.
OK. And we had an appointment and get to know each other and it was really like a very good conversation and like the the chemical part really fierce and we liked each other and so on. And so he said, oh, when you're looking in a job in sales, let me know. And actually, I was at that part. I didn't, I didn't drive that company that long. I was not so happy. So I think after a few weeks, I yeah, I told you I went to identity that way. Yeah. So it was like very spontane.
And then I said, OK, hey, is your offer still still available and are you interested in. He said, hey, yeah, sure, why not. And then we talked and met again and I think I started then after 2-3 weeks. So how long have you been in this role, this identity role? And the identity role, so in Germany nearly four years. And right now I'm in Switzerland. So I joined another company in Switzerland. Like the, yeah, basic stimuli like the one in Germany, also smaller one. Very cool.
Also like, yeah, same partners and so on. So like the same role. And now I'm there like nearly two years. So in July, it's two years. And you focus on the sales and the business development side? Of things focus on the sales and business development, but I really like it in a small company that I can also do like some things around like part of project management and also like proving contracts and so on. It's it's really cool. So you're like the the first contact person for everyone and
I really like that. And I also really recognize that it's really my that I really love it so much to talk to people, to have a look what they need and just to care about that them and, and just be to make their their life better or to make the life of the people in the company better to make it easier from FM. And I think that's what identity and access management does, because it makes them easier and makes them secure and yeah, ready to ensure that they save
time. I mean, sure, at the beginning it's like more time invest, sure, but it's normal. But at the end it's like more automation and more processes and more, more safe And you're really sure that every person have the same rights. And that's really, yeah, I'd really love that. So a lot of people, we have a lot of former Ditropians listening and watching in this. And so Jim and I came from a very small consulting firm too. So totally get it and understand that we have a lot of what I
would call like sales. This is development folks who listen and watch as well. What's a tip that you would give them to say, hey, here is a tip that I use to make a relationship with somebody or to make it easy to find clients or customers or things like that? Like what's a tip that you would
give somebody? I think so for me, it's really important to have like an honest relationship at the beginning because there are so many like sales and I think I don't know in the US, but in Germany or else in the dark region. It's also like a negative touch or someone want to send me something. It's it's saying and it's like pressure. Yeah. And I think it's really important that you have like a really honest interest on that person that you really can.
Yeah, make sure that you you like that person because then it's much easier. I'm also like that know, like trust worker. So I know you. And I think that I have a feeling as a customer that you really want to send me something I need, that you know who I am, you know what I want, you know what our company needs and so on. And for example, we also do it like when we have a new customer or a new potential customer that we don't say in the first meeting.
Oh, so I can I send you an offer like that, that that I say, OK, it's really important that we need personal. And so I have like an invest from us like 3-4 hours to really meet to understand what are your requirements? What do you really need? Because actually there what I don't like when you have a company who yeah, you, you just make an offer and say, OK, we have that, that, that and you don't know if that fits for that customer.
It's so curious. I don't really like to to have like a very personal offer and to have like a really connected relationship and to really make sure that you really understand the customer and what the customer needs and don't just only to sell because you need to sell. Be the person that you'd want to do business with, right This kind of. Yeah, totally. Be the person. Yeah. I mean, that's also that one question. I find that really I, I really like that question.
Just ask yourself if you want to work with yourself. Yeah. I want to work with Sarah. Yes, yes, yes, I would. And I would also like to work with you. Jeff. OK, well, all right. I appreciate this conversation and yeah, look forward to seeing you. So we're identity beer again, First EIC, first Berlin, first identity beer for both of us. And yeah, we'll see. Hopefully this turns out. Absolutely. All right, goodbye. Hey, I'm Steele.
This is my first identity beer. I'm actually just starting out in identity as a feel, as in is of itself. So just like trying to network, get to know people, know what identity is all about. Yeah, I'm Sigma. I'm Astian here. I'm a newcomer to identity beer. I work in Commando, which is identity security company in the Nordics. Mostly. I work with sale points. I've also have a quite big footprint with cyber art. So Pam, I am stuff and I was surprised that we are actually outside.
I thought it was going to be some indoor event where some somebody was going to present, present something. But here we are drinking beers. Oslo is a fantastic city. I, I have been here, I have lived here for 40 years and I think the best thing about it is that, you know, you can be a pedestrian. There is no cars in downtown. It's like we are taking the people are taking the city back.
Of course we have the ski jump, the Viking ship and everything and the sculpture park and everything like that. But downtime all slow, where the cars are removed and if the weather is like today, fantastic. Also, even though it's the capital of Norway, it's a really small city. You can basically walk from one end to the other. Like most people can like cross the entire city and like just everything technically being a couple streets away is great. How much are your days in
English first? It it depends which customer we are working with. Since I'm working in a consulting company, we have different customers. It is for mostly it's the oral thing is in Scandinavian language, since we understand Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, but but when it's come to the written stuff, most of it is in English, Yeah, because that's universal language which everybody understands. But, but, but for the most part, the oral stuff is, is Scandinavian language.
How did? You get into. IAM I think the I am found me yeah. So it was with a project for a client, so they needed more people on on the I am. So I kind of OK, let's try it. So I work with a privilege access management as well. So it's you know, it's the so it's kind of it's its neighbor. So it's kind of it was quite easy to pick up. I haven't started the I Am yet, but I'm moving from the service
that's covered to our I Am team. Like I was lucky enough to got to spend a couple of days a week with them some time back, enjoyed what they were doing, thought it was interesting and like, it seemed like a good next step from a service desk standpoint. Yeah. Like because service desk is in a sense pretty much connected to the I am partner, right, They are for sure.
Yeah. So like try to get some of that like customer experience and like try to you get kind of good at speaking the language of the customers, right when you work in service desk. So like try to get the I am perspective over that way definitely I think could be good. Yeah. Show them that we are. Then we, me, we're actually they're friends. We can help them automate things. We can make their lives easier. Yeah. So, yeah, I think it will be cool. I like beer and I like to speak
to people. So. So then I thought it was a good opportunity to get to know other people within the field. All right, so another identity or conversation here, this time with our friend Usman, who we met a couple years ago, Jim and I at karaoke in Ideniverse, I think like 2 years ago, three years ago, whatever it was. Three years ago, I think, yeah. Did you sing that night? I think you and I were in the back. We did not. Sing. We did not sing. I was thinking about it the
whole time. What's what song would that be, Right. I was thinking, OK, it has to be something from Queens Clearwater Revival. But then we left. So I yeah, OK, I lucked out. Well, so you went to Gartner and now you've recently left Gartner. Now you're doing kind of your own thing. So now that you're not with Gartner, you can actually be on podcasts. Sorry, a little shadow dig right there. Tell us something about your origin story. How did you get into identity and access management?
Give us your background. So my background in IT is irrelevant to this, I think because I got into IT as a side job at university. I mean, I'm, I've been studying chemistry and then I went to this. Very typical chemistry and going into yeah. Right. So and I'm using that every day. I mean not every day, but chemistry. And the point is, I used, I went to support IT support and I recommend everyone start with IC support, but you get a feel for
people's problems. Yes, everybody should have to work help desk or in a restaurant. One of those two things. Yeah, maybe even both if you really need to learn a lesson. So I worked in a machine room and I, you know, switched tapes for mainframes. And then I went into, I was going to say Linux administration, but I was before Linux. I was a Solaris administrator and then the DBA.
And then at one point I came into contact with middleware and I think that's something that other guests have been saying for in middleware. A. Lot of I am happens in middleware. So The thing is I was responsible for e-business for a large Norwegian company and I realized we had this thing called the Oracle Internet Directory which governed something called single sign on. And it was kind of in my responsibility. So I looked into what was in there and it was just so much junk.
No one was, you know, controlling what went into that thing. So I was troubleshooting why isn't single sign of working. And it was kind of obvious, right? So you started on the really the authentication side, I guess the directory side, right, if you're looking at Oracle directory for that or was it a different part of Oracle? So long before that, I was working with the middleware parts of authentication for the Oracle Ebusiness Suite, and that was just something that needed
to be done. But I was still AVBA at that point, mainly in my own mind. And then I realized if if we can get so much trouble and chaos and junk into central parts of the organization of the architecture in general, because no one really cares about this and someone needs to care about that. So I started caring more and more, and this was around 2002 I think. And then I just realized there's so much more and it's so essential. There's always something new to
learn, right? What has kept you in identity all these years? Like why stay in identity, really? It's a good question one. Maybe I don't want to be an identity. One reason is that there's so few of us, right? So it's a good place to be because it's a good career to have. Identity is so central, right? Would you say it's? How? Central is it's at the center depending, depending on how you define identity, right. So access might be at the center, but you need identity to enable access.
So if we do digital transformation, we we need both of those, right? So I stated it because it's, it's really core to everything that happens in society. And also, and you can see this in the background here because of the community, it's a very cool community. It's a very cool community. And so let's talk about that because this is my first identity here, but you're like
the originator, I think of this. And so we've kind of talked about some past episodes of, you know, trying to get this be more worldwide. And so let's let's get the message out there. Like, how do we turn identity here into like a global phenomenon? Because this is a great group. We have like, what, 100 people here, I think. I mean, obviously, you know, champions are shaken and there's a lot of background noise, stuff like that. But it's a very lively and fun
environment. This is the biggest identity here so far. All right. So it's a new record. We had almost as many people one year ago in Oslo because we placed the our identity here right after our conference, because we started doing conferences as well, right? This is what you can do. If you have this platform, then you collect the people and then you can do amazing stuff. Make it convenient. It's good your people are going to be here anyway. Like, let's get together, you know, talk.
Yeah. And not in a salesy way, right? No, that stuff. So until the pandemic in 2019 and 2020-2021, we were just a Scandinavian phenomenon. And then we got in touch with Amsterdam, Martin Sandron and when we enrolled them in under the identity or umbrella and then we had Sam moving up in London. So I think it from that point on, the ball really started moving. So we had people contacting us.
I mean, mainly they contact me or Sam or the others about how do we start a chapter because people like the idea of identity or being vendor neutral. You're not beholden to any vendor. You're not. Your name doesn't go on an e-mail list. It's a safe place. It's a safe place, I mean, and there's been so many meetups around the world with identity
already. There's many places that have these meetups, but it turns out people really like the idea of something that's independent and it's the same space. So I don't have the count right now, but I think we are. We are at least in 10 to 12 different countries and in Canada, in the US, not that many in the US yet, but me, we have San Francisco is pretty regular. We're trying to start up in in New York in like. Seattle might have one too. Like there's a nice concentration there.
They have the ID pro meet up OK but I think they might be willing to rebrand. And then add some beer to it, and then it becomes identity beer. Yeah. So why beer? Why not identity wine? Or what if you're someone like me who really doesn't drink identity coke or cola? We don't want to. It's already. A relevant question. So for me it had had to be beer because beer and running kind of my main hobbies except for I am. But not at the same time. Or do you drink and brine at the
same time? No, sometimes I run to get a drink at the drink at the end and then I run back again. It's not that often. Those calories off. Yeah, it's a good combination, but we've been discussing this now and then we could have done the identity tea, which has been a thing in Gartner, the UK guys, right? Yeah. And it's a good idea. It's just the bandwidth of stuff, right?
I want to because I'm very, you know, aware that there are people that for different reasons, many different reasons, won't go to an event for the beer and identity. Beer is about being inclusive to everyone. But mainly it's about it's a different kind of logistics around doing those kind of events. And if we are stable enough and have been running, you know, we do every month in Oslo identity beers.
If we have enough organizer, I think we should try to do some identity coffees or identity brews. Identity Brews. Identity Bev like identity beverage or. Something beverage I have, something that, you know, people can recognize is still identity beer. But so beer is mainly. Yeah, it's easy to collect a lot of people around beer though, right? I mean, evidence shows. That obviously exactly. Everybody showed up for this one. So OK, I'm sold. I want to start up an identity beer.
What do I, I do? I mean, this is not like it's a mass like group effort, right? It's usually local. It's like, hey, it's just what people say, hey, we're going to get together for a beer somewhere. And it could be an app or I think there's somebody has something. I mean, like, but you've got a website that's actually for this that people can submit sort of where their chapter is going to be or whatever that's going to look like. You want to talk about that?
Yeah, so it's in progress of being good enough, but the main purpose of the website's supposed to be the calendar that you can just at one glance just click and see what's the closest identity of chapter near me and when do they have a meet up next time. And then the other important part about it is to to have a, you know, frequently asked questions that would answer how do I set up a chapter if I so if
I'm so inclined. But mainly and we're getting a charter out there working at that moment. It's just we try to keep up with the group growth there. Just get people to show up. That's the hardest part, right? And I had a couple of conversations this evening about people saying that they want to start up in their home cities. So that's cool. What we typically do is just say reach out to me just on LinkedIn, for example, and say,
well, how do we go about? And what I typically tell them, I mean, people reach out meetings with is just tips about getting started, what what to do and what not to do. But there are some principles because we need to keep it vendor neutral in general because they cannot call it an identifier if if it's not like that, right? So I've had, I've had representatives from companies that shall not be named right now that said, hey, we really
want to do this in this city. And it turns out that the four people in the call with me were all from that same company and. To try like a sponsored event type thing. And that's just a. Different. Yeah. And it's just for them. Yeah, Yeah. So when I say, well, you have to invite at least one other company over time to be in your group with you, and then you said, oh, that's not quite what we want. To right. OK, well, do your own thing then, right?
Yeah, exciting. I mean, just did not call it identity beer, but we can collaborate. Yeah, Yeah, right. OK. Well, this is fantastic. My first, hopefully not my last. Now I'm in a small market in the US, Asheville, So I don't even know if there's anybody else in identity in Asheville. I got to think that's at least one or two. We'll have to see. If you're in Asheville, NC and you want to stop an identity beer with me, let me know. Hit me up on LinkedIn. I don't know if there's any
other other. Otherwise, be very lonely. I would just be me drinking alone in my house. Sometimes it takes a few months to grow it from two to three people to to 10. Well, what I can say about it, it's it's really not much work. It's really easy, basically just setting up like a date and time and say, hey, we're going to be here and everybody kind of pays their own way. This is not like it's a membership fee or anything like
that. It's just that we're getting together and talk like individuals and I don't know if there's actually any identity talk happening. It seems like most people just talk about anything except identity, which is fine, right? That's kind of the whole point is so you have conversation about anything and everything, but get people in the community together. I've definitely had a lot of interesting conversations about
identity at these events, right? Because I'm, I get to talk to people that use identity in different ways and then you just get to qualify whether they use it in the ways that I thought they should and and so on. So plus. You're meeting new people and you're seeing their viewpoints and understanding their positions.
And it's something like this is great where we're tied to, you know, the EIC conference where there's a lot of people that I recognize saw people I don't meeting for the first time and having newcomers conversations and you know, things like that, which is super cool. That's one of the things that I want for the future, is that if you go to an identity conference anywhere, then there's an identity beer after or before. So let's get one for Identiverse.
I mean, we're all going to be there in a couple weeks, right? Yeah. Who do we have to throw it on the gauntlet to? Like what's the what do we need to have happen to have like an official identity beer at Identiverse or is it already in place? So we've already had a meet up on the Monday under different labels. It was the auth Sen last year and something else before that. So I'm currently waiting on response from the the venue just to see if we we going to be
there or not. And the trouble with an event that can be as large as this in Las Vegas, the companies want to have someone who can give them their credit card and guarantee everything. So it will be an identity beer. I can guarantee that it will be an identity beer on Monday before the identity beers. It may be more crowd sourced and sort of all show up at the same time like a flash mob. Maybe right because. It's totally fine.
Yeah, yeah. So either we do it at the Mandalay, at the Irish Pub, but I think the plan A is to do it at the BrewDog, OK, because BrewDog has lots of space and they have this terrace around the strip. And I want to do that from 4:00 PM and onwards. So everyone who gets into town and that they can just go to the go to the identity as a reception. And just a kind of a revolving kind of open spot where people can go to. Yeah, that's very cool.
All right, well, this has been a lot of fun, so hats off to you. Congratulations. I mean, this is, you know, quite a, quite a success here. I'm really proud of the community. Yeah, so, all right, it's good to talk to you. I'm going to. We're going to get more drinks and more food. My name is Bjorn Bjorn for everyone not speaking Norwegian. Working in Norway, been working with an identity and access management for a bit more than 20 years.
Working right now in a smaller boutique company called Commando. And yeah, I'm here at Identity Bear to meet my friends and colleagues and enjoying the sunshine for once. So I'm born in Nepal, as you can see, and I've been travelled quite a lot in my life, most of the continents. Norway is one of my favorite places because of the relaxed working community, meaning that we work together even though we compete outside of these nice venues. When we drink beer, we have good
relationships. We can without any challenge, talk to anyone here, even though tomorrow morning we will be in a tough competition for some client or something like that. It's a very open and including company and country. Yeah, it picked me. So I started working with normal kind of operations back in 9899 and then I worked with like in the early days we built one of the first net banks back in in Norway and we started with access management.
A lot of the people that have been working 20 plus years started with IBM ISAMS and and all those kind of technologies. So we built up one of the best I would say still really one of the best net banks in the world at that time in 99 two thousand on ISAM before it was purchased by a man.
And from there on kind of moved into both from an access management perspective that moved into IGA, moved into access like attribute based access control, previous access management kind of all over the place. So so been doing most of the different main domains over the last 20 years. Yeah, how would I think about AI in I am and I and I have to say I'm, I'm really, I'm always interested in the new kind of technologies that comes in new standards, new products, new capabilities.
And I'm really kind of baffled by some of the new tech like you have. And I'll just do some product mentions, even though it is no kind of thing related to me, but I am once doing really good AI on top of legacy or kind of old school or or existing IGA tools where you have like the native language people are used to using chatbot, they're starting to using Copilot and they can talk to an actual tool that just delivers immediate response. And I, I think it's kind of
baffling. I see all the different type of vendors starting to build their own solutions and, and it's going to completely explode on how you interface with a different type of people. So the different, if you're, if you're an administrator, you'll get the kind of the interface of an administrator. If you're an end user, you'll get the interface of an end user.
And in addition to that, of course, everyone talk about agentic AI and how that's going to influence things and how how to manage what you should be accessing and what shouldn't be accessed by an AI agent. But I still think it's like it, it's we're going to reduce the kind of knowledge need. We're moving a lot of the first 2-3, five years of experience because you can get that for free.
And then it's more like understanding business understanding actually what's, what do you want to accomplish more than the technology. My name is Connor. I work in a consultant rig called Advancea. I got into I am a few years ago in 2007. Basically it picked me. I thought security was fun. I am was a way into the security really, really well. Good way to get into all of the good stuff that I am can offer everything about programming integration.
But later on what caught my interest and made me stay is basically a business side of it. To me, identity is the way into security. It is the trust part, it is the compliance part and it is the governance part. To me, the thing that decide me the most about identity is that it's no day is the same. It's affects by, it's affected by everything and it affects everything around itself. So when we talk about AI, for example, they have a huge previous issue that is part of Identity core.
And if you have ever tried to deanonymize someone, you have done that through identity functions and you can do that also through identity management functions. It is basically the same. It's the same, different sides of the same coin. Basically. The hardest problems I've ever solved with Identity have always been within the organization. It is been related to education. It's related to audit and governance.
Always. It is making the management understand why a password policy is important. It is been making the connection between something as simple as the authentication rings within the Linux kernel within to top management of an organization. How does it actually affect each other and why? I worked as chief architect, lead architect for several projects. I worked as identity lead and different types of project leads. I also worked as a programmer within identity management projects.
My especially within within IT is from embedded system sites and advanced Unix programming AI. And what's to me, the lead up to identity isn't really important is that you have a leader, you have a base to stand up. It might be business and it might be it. To me, the core core lead up was integration and very low level understanding of an operating system as well as normal masses degree. Ohh, this shirt.
Yeah, it's so I, I started job search around December and I figured I, I was so bored with seeing everybody on LinkedIn going hey, I'm unemployed, I'm looking for work. Hashtag looking for work. It's so generic. Yeah, exactly. So I was like, that doesn't tell anything about who or what I am. So I was like, OK, here's who I'm what I am. I'm an old I am war. Horse. I've seen it all, I've done it all. So I figure let's just advertise that with a little bit of sense of humor.
I don't know if it worked, but I got a job now. Okay, so this is our largest group yet, Identity, here in Berlin, Germany. So I'm going to ask the question is how did you get into identity? Well, first of all, what's your name? Where are you from? And then how did you get into identity? So we'll start with you. We'll just take the microphone and just kind of pass it along and we'll go from there. Thank you.
Well, I'm Wolf. I'm actually a native from Berlin. I'm now the Chief commercial officer from Alerti and I got into identity almost by accident. Think identity has for a long time been the most undervalued and almost overlooked part of cyber security. But it is so important as now more and more of my clients are struggling with their cloud migration, with their S for Hana cloud migration, the rice. It forces them to clean up their identity.
And all of a sudden, this is the core of the most important part of any digital transformation. And here we I am at Identity Beer, really enjoying myself and eager to learn more about Identity. Is this your first identity? It certainly is OK. Mine too. How many people have been to Identity Identity Beer before? I have a microphone. All right. So many. A couple of people have been to Identity Bears. OK, cool. OK, so let's go down here. Hello. What was the question, who are you?
How are you and what would you say you do around here? Sam Evans, where are you from? Born in England, OK, now based in Lisbon in, in Portugal. How did I get into identity? I, I found into it. I was in IT 23 years ago, wires and boxes. And then and then I got into into recruitment and that was 20 years ago. And I looked at the room and everyone was recruiting for COBOL, kicks, DB2, DALFI, all these, all these different
strange languages. And then I come across AI think it was role based access control opportunity. You pick something easy, but like no one, there was no one about that was recruiting for it or could recruit for it. And I thought I'd like to pick a little niche.
And then that's what I'd done. So I started, I started working the network and finding people in that industry and built a quite a big phone book and a little black book and started, yeah, putting people into, into, into jobs and into roles and building teams. And yeah, that was the the origins of it. That's pretty cool. Yeah. 23 years, 20 years, 20 years. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why do you stay in identity for so long? It's a niche and it's failed for
20 years. The same problem that we have 20 years ago is still prominent today. It's a skill shortage. Why are we not doing more to educate and to to wolves point earlier? You know, the fact that we call it identity security now is a great thing because it means that we're weaving it into the fabric of security and it's it's getting the place that it should have. The fact that we're talking about a cedar roll, meaning the identity gets a seat at the top
table and it's here to stay. It's going nowhere. So and all of those, that little black book that I was talking about, for me, people make projects, good people, 50% of projects are failing. How do we stop that? So there's a lot of improvement that needs to happen and I want to play a role in helping with the education, awareness and growth of all of that. So well, you're definitely playing a role here. Definitely drinking beer. That's probably the primary role right now.
I could do that. All right, let's go down to the next. Who are you? Where are you from and how'd you get into identity? I'm Shane, I'm from Ireland, but I've been living in Switzerland for almost 30 years now and got into identity about 2526 years ago. So we're building for a large pharma company. We're building the company's first web-based applications are going away from client server apps. And one of the things that we kind of run into is like how do we figure out who gets access to
it? And there was no idea. The concept of identity access didn't didn't exist, but we had, I think we had 47 different Active Directory setups and and we had to come up with the concept. Of how do we build user based access, enrolment, all different role management. How do you take those 47 active directories and make it 43 active directories, maybe more, but it's so so that was kind of the starting point.
And then from there, similar to Sam, I kind of ended up transitioning towards the human resources side of it. Then looking at actually how do we start, you know, onboarding offboarding employees, How do all those. Processes work and over 30 years kind of developed across all those different components and and then you know with Securex and so it's and now looking at how do.
We, you know, become a bit more effective at those project deliveries that are 50% behind and helping kind of helping everyone work. Very good. That's exciting. All right, let's go next. Pass it down. Whoever's got the hot potato. Who are you? Hold the microphone up. Who are you? Where are you from and how did
you get into identity? Hi, my name is Francisco Rodriguez, I'm from Portal from Portugal and I joined the identity, the identity atmosphere space around 1314 months, not years like these guys, but months because Ricardo here asked me to lead the, the business in Portugal. So I've, I've been working in the in the main customers in Portugal for the past 25 years. And I, I fell in love with the cybersecurity space, all the consulting part that's behind
it, all the security parts. I'm an engineer by by training and optimist by nature. And, and I really love this conversation with the clients and I really feel that that the like Sam was saying, the the the cybersecurity part is, is, is evolving, it's shaping and we're like on the top of the wave now. So it's feeling very interesting to be going to this non human identities, gentic AI, all of this new stuff that's coming around, very hot topics to be working on now.
So Francisco, you said that you've been in identity for just a few months now. Did I hear that right? Not. A few no. 14/14/14 OK, come on. OK. So many. Many, many, many, many. Months. So when? How does your viewpoint of identity change over the last 14 months? Very good question. I know. They should do a podcast. I should do a podcast. That's a great. Idea because honestly, I wasn't aware of, of this human and non human identities. It really changed the way I feel about it.
And when I talk with, with previous clients that I, that I know personally, there's always an angle that somebody's is missing. So the point of, of the, the, the security part in identity really becomes very crucial. It's it's a very hot topic nowadays. Excellent. OK, Next. All right. Who are you? Where are you from? How did you get into identity? Hi, my name is Ricardo Martis. I work from Lisbon and travel to are there countries in Europe where we are present?
How did I started identity? So I actually started as a pen tester. So it seemed by the 22 years ago more or less that the people that really knew about identity repositories and stuff, they, they, they were like hackers And I, I was fit for that purpose. And and so I started working with Send Sun Microsystems, which was later acquired by Oracle. We got some really old people on this. Exactly. Yeah, I'm good looking as well, right.
So, but the point was I did start like with Sun and then the reason why I was chosen to do that was because I used to do a lot of a lot of hacking on on Sun Aldap and identity Systems. So I was a good fit for purpose on that, on that role. Yeah, that was it. That's pretty cool. So that that shift from basically offensive, right, attacking things. What was something that you would like? Oh, I'm definitely going to get into this because this identity thing wasn't done.
Like what I think about here is like a control. Was it like MFA was like a bad password? Was it like, what was your like? Oh yeah, these guys don't know what they're. Doing reality and actually 10 years after it was, and I believe it still is with some colleagues actually doing that is that you can actually start, you can go and work on a company and two days later you can be the, the administrator of the, of the Active Directory in so 48 hours. It's actually quite common.
So and when you do like red team and you actually try to do that, that's actually still the case. So it's still, it's different technologies, different solutions, different problems. But at the end of the day, you can still gather all the identity information of everyone inside an organization and then can be done externally and internally. So it's still pretty scary. So it's still a big problem. So it's still lots of things to do. OK, well, you're just a real fountain of joy.
Appreciate it. It's my pleasure. My pleasure all. Right, let's pass it down. All right. Who are you, where are you from, and how did you get into identity? Hi my name is Gabriel. I work for Securex as Acro and we are part of the wonderful Ellerety family and I'm from Switzerland. OK, so that was very brief. All right, let's go to the next person. No, I don't. I don't told you why I'm in identity. OK. Oh yeah. So why are you when I? Do that. Yeah, I'm in identity.
To be honest it's it's like a by accident but as when I was in I liked it and I stayed now for more than 10 years. It chose you. Yeah, it chose you, right? Yeah, that's that's my my standing theory for six years now. So what keeps you in identity? Yeah. For for me, identity is the central point of everything when it comes to, to any processes in, in IT, in IT teams, in IT driven companies and what we need to more focus on identity because it's a central point of,
of everything. Well, you can't use Identity Center. That's trademark. So find something else to say. All right, let's go to the next person all the way down at the very end. Who are you? Where are you from and how did you get into identity? My name is Christopher. I'm from America or the US. Where in America? Pennsylvania, OK. So northeast. So Eagles. Northeast. Eagles fan. You have to be a Steelers fan if you're. From Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh. I didn't hear that.
Sorry. I don't know if I said that. I'm very sorry by the way, I'm not a. Steelers fan? That's OK, but I got into IAM, or identity security about seven years ago. I worked for a financial institution in the US and yeah, I mean, identity is the the main focus point and internal security is just as important as cybersecurity. And This is why I got into it, is to learn a lot about identities and how to protect them. And yeah, absolutely. What's the hardest thing about
identity from your perspective? What is the hardest thing about identity? The person, Right. Like, I mean, individual human. Yeah, exactly. You know, you can teach people, but if they don't listen, then yeah, I mean, you can't. Humans. Are going to human exactly absolutely all right so let's do a quick cheers here thank you all for joining us here thank you for being an identity here thank you thank you thank you cheers cheers cheers all right salute thank you everybody.
I will pass it down, yeah. You've been listening to Identity at the Center. We hope you've enjoyed the show. Make sure to like, rate and review, and we'll be back soon. But in the meantime, hit the website at identity@thecenter.com. See you next time on Identity at the Center.