Using Oracle Identity Manager, custom connector are created which is known as Generic Technology Connector, which is not dependant on API’s which are supported by target systems and the data repository type and schema in which identity data is stored by target systems.
BUSINESS CHALLENGES
Provisioning solution has gained popularity in the IT industry and most companies have successfully deployed Oracle’s Identity Manager for managing provisioning. Most complicated part of deploying a solution is creating the connectors which allow the provisioning system to integrate with the managed target systems. Oracle has many pre-defined connectors for OIM that are designed for target systems such as MS Active Directory. But for applications that are not supported out of the box such as custom Web Services, Generic Technology connectors can be used to integrate Oracle identity Manager and Target Systems. Oracle’s GTC technology focuses on communication with any trusted or target resource using standard protocols such as FTP, SMTP, HTTP and generic message formats such as SPML, WS-SPML, CSV, LDIF.
For example, when a person enters a Organization, his/her information is stored in HR System. In the Organization environment, multiple trusted sources for storing and creating user identities exist. The Identity Management Solution must have the ability to update the same common attributes from different sources depending on changes in the status of a person. When a person shifts to from a company within the same group of companies the authoritative source for Common Attributes may switch from HR system of one company to other company’s HR system.The Generic Technology Connector can be easily re-configured to change its authoritative source correspondingly, so that the employee data in the Identity Management System remains current.
For example, when a person enters a Organization, his/her information is stored in HR System. In the Organization environment, multiple trusted sources for storing and creating user identities exist. The Identity Management Solution must have the ability to update the same common attributes from different sources depending on changes in the status of a person. When a person shifts to from a company within the same group of companies the authoritative source for Common Attributes may switch from HR system of one company to other company’s HR system.The Generic Technology Connector can be easily re-configured to change its authoritative source correspondingly, so that the employee data in the Identity Management System remains current.
General Architecture Overview of Generic Technology Connector
Features of Generic Technology Connectors
1.A generic technology connector acts as the bridge for reconciliation and provisioning operations between Oracle Identity Manager and a target system.
2.The reconciliation and provisioning modules of a generic technology connector are composed of reusable components that you select. Each component performs a specific function during provisioning or reconciliation.
Features Specific to the Reconciliation Module
1.Trusted Source Reconciliation
2.User Account Status Reconciliation
3.Full and Incremental Reconciliation
4.Batched Reconciliation
5.Reconciliation of Multi valued Attribute Data (Child Data) Deletion
6.Failure Threshold for Stopping Reconciliation
Other Features
The following features are not specific to the reconciliation or provisioning module:
1.Custom Data Fields and Field Mappings
2.Custom Providers
3.Multilanguage Support
4.Custom Date Formats
5.Propagation of Changes in OIM User Attributes to Target Systems
Conclusion
Oracle’s Generic Technology Connector aims at quick and easy design of Custom connectors to systems that are difficult to integrate in a short time. This improves the overall deployment time for a business application, by reducing the effort spent on the user management piece, thus reducing the time-to-market and increase in revenues from the corresponding application.
