If you would have asked me two years ago if my company’s products would be broadly deployed by large universities, hospitals, and government I would have said yes. As expected, these types of customers have deployed our products and are starting to get quite sophisticated in their use of authenticated networks. However, if you would have suggested that community colleges would have found our offering compelling I might have though you a bit crazy. However, much to my surprise, community colleges are deploying Identity Engines’ products (and authenticated networks in general) regularly.
If you think about it for just a moment, it makes perfect sense. Community colleges have among the highest user turnover rates of any type of organization; thousands of users are often coming and going each semester. The faculty at these colleges is often a mix of full-time staff and part-time instructors with day jobs in the marketplace. Additionally, most community colleges have multiple campuses through a geographic area and need to coordinate access policies among them. Guest access is another key requirement as community colleges engage with the residents of their host city in a significant way.
Kevin Jones of Metropolitan Community College (MCC) and I recently gave a talk at the League of Innovations CIT 2007 conference. This is a conference focused on community colleges and their unique IT needs. We discussed MCC’s deployment of authenticated networks and delivered the presentation to a standing-room only crowd. So much for convention wisdom…
