Grouper Users - Open Discussion List

[Steven Carmody <>]

On 10/6/14 11:58 AM, Edwards, Kevin wrote:
> I’m a new-comer to the list.  I’m curious others experiences with
> integrating Grouper into an enterprise IAM framework.
>
> Are you using Grouper as an alternative to commercial IAM products, or
> is Grouper one component of an integrated IAM solution utilizing other
> commercial/open source/in-house developed components?

Like you, we have a ancient locally developed IAM system (person 
registry, provisioning). Later this month, we will go live with Oracle 
OIM as a replacement. We have been using Grouper for a number of years, 
in production. We have determined that OIM does NOT contain 
functionality that is any way comparable to what grouper provides. We 
plan to continue using Grouper.

I would call your attention, tho, to I2's recently announced TIER 
effort. Over the next few years I2 expects to develop and make available 
an open source IDM/IAM system. That package will include Grouper as one 
of the components. There was lots of discussion last week at Educause 
about TIER. I'm sure there will be even more discussion about TIER later 
this month at TechX/Advanced CAMP.

> At UNC Charlotte, we have embarked on a multi-year effort to replace 35+
> years of home-grown utilities, community knowledge, and human
> intervention with a commercial product for improved IAM business
> practice automation.  As we get deeper into the project, it appears that
> the group management features of Grouper are more robust than what the
> commercial product currently supports.  Integration between the two
> might be the best option.  The Grouper architecture diagrams show that
> integration with a separate Identity Management system is part of the
> overall scope, but I’m not finding specific references where Grouper
> users have actually undertaken that, and I am curious your experiences
> doing that.

We currently provide an overnight feed from our HR system (Workday) to 
Grouper. That feed is used to maintain the memberships of a wide variety 
of demographic groups; those groups slice and dice our community in a 
variety of ways. We currently have a real-time feed (via MSG BUS) from 
our Student system (Banner) to Grouper; this allows us to update Course 
groups within Grouper in real time. We have a pair of overnight feeds 
from our HR system and from our Faculty Information System to Grouper; 
these feeds are used to manage a set of People groups for every Dept.

Our Grouper instance uses a MSG BUS to provide real time updates to 
several target systems, including ldap, google, and Canvas (our LMS system).

Good luck !