Symantec Identity Governance and Administration and Microsoft Identity Manager compete in the identity management category. Microsoft Identity Manager has the upper hand due to stronger integration with Microsoft products and more flexible deployment options.
Features: Symantec Identity Governance and Administration provides user authentication, access control, and integration with enterprise systems, emphasizing role management, customizable policies, and flexible provisioning. Microsoft Identity Manager offers seamless authentication, adaptive authentication, and integration within Microsoft products, with a focus on self-service capabilities and cloud and on-premises reach.
Room for Improvement: Symantec requires simplified customization, improved user interfaces, and better cloud integration, with a need for more native connectors and reporting capabilities. Microsoft needs better support for legacy systems, fewer instances, and quicker issue resolution, with expanded connector and integration capabilities suggested by users.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Symantec is mainly deployed on-premises and is seen as strong there, though challenges exist. Customer service is good, but technical support could be more efficient. Microsoft offers hybrid and cloud deployment fitting Microsoft environments, with adequate customer service, though users suggest improvements in real-time issue resolution and technical guidance.
Pricing and ROI: Symantec is mid-range priced with a user-based licensing model, offering negotiations in large enterprise settings. Microsoft Identity Manager is included in Azure AD premium subscriptions, providing a cost-effective solution within the Microsoft ecosystem. Both demonstrate ROI through productivity improvements and cost reductions, with Microsoft’s product adding value through integration.
It is important to get to the right engineer quickly, but the process sometimes involves multiple levels before reaching the best support.
I rate the technical support nine out of ten.
The technical support is of good quality
In terms of scalability, Microsoft Identity Manager allows management of up to 400,000 objects with a standard configuration.
Not all conditions can be satisfied at all times, leading to some employee or user accounts experiencing deviations and syncing issues.
While the initial setup of Microsoft Identity Manager is not completely complex, migrating or upgrading to a new version can be complex and requires multiple backups to ensure it goes smoothly.
The current policy management features are limited, and custom, flexible policies would be ideal.
Microsoft's licenses are bundled, allowing access to multiple services, which is beneficial.
The pricing of Microsoft Identity Manager is expensive.
Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing of Microsoft Identity Manager, it has a couple of cloud connectors that can sync directly with the O365 admin center, which is good enough.
These features have been impactful in improving our security and compliance.
The best features of Microsoft Identity Manager are its 100% compatibility with Active Directory.
The features of Microsoft Identity Manager that have been most impactful in improving security and compliance include the granular policies, report, and the ability to gain end-to-end visibility for each user.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Identity Manager | 2.3% |
| Symantec Identity Governance and Administration | 1.7% |
| Other | 96.0% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 13 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 3 |
| Large Enterprise | 10 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 23 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 9 |
| Large Enterprise | 45 |
Microsoft Identity Manager (MIM) builds on the identity and access management capabilities of Forefront Identity Manager. MIM helps you manage the users, credentials, policies, and access within your organization. Additionally, MIM adds a hybrid experience, privileged access management capabilities, and support for new platforms.
The Symantec Identity Governance and Administration (formerly CA Identity Suite) provides comprehensive identity management and governance capabilities with a simple, intuitive user experience. This user experience can dramatically simplify processes such as user access requests and access certifications, resulting in improved productivity and user satisfaction. In addition, the Symantec Identity Governance and Administration performs risk analysis and certification and enables remediation actions in real-time during the access provisioning steps, thereby improving audit performance and risk posture with preventive policy enforcement.
While providing these business and governance-centric capabilities for business users, the Symantec Identity Governance and Administration also delivers core enterprise-grade identity management and governance capabilities, including broad provisioning support for on-premise and cloud apps, extensibility and flexibility to integrate with other IT systems and consumer-grade scale. This means organizations are not forced to choose between usability and performance. With the Symantec Identity Governance and Administration, they can have both.
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