A recent Sun IDM Buzz TV video, hosted by senior product line manager Daniel Raskin, shines a light on the advantages of open-sourcing identity management software at Sun. They include transparency, ready and complete access by the community, alleviation of a lengthy sales process, and frequent participation at open forums by the worldwide community. Enterprises that adopt OpenSSO and OpenDS, the current two open-source identity projects from Sun, often purchase support, hence a mutual benefit for both Sun and its customers.

The word "open" pretty much summarizes it all, as Felix Gaehtgens, a Kuppinger Cole analyst and Daniel's guest on the video, adds.

Daniel discloses that other Sun identity products will be open source soon. Excellent news!