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said. “In each instance, it became apparent that a technology-driven effort would be more chal- lenging to message, build support for, and track over time. The efforts to scope the program in business terms led to the [final] IAM Program Plan.”
Early in the project, the Harvard team recog- nized that an internal branding effort would be important for engaging constituents. Each user received a new identity known as their “Har- vardKey.”
“Quickly our users were able to understand the concept of the Key as their tool to access online resources,” Vaverchak explained. “Until we had that brand identified, it was very hard to communicate to external users what the UIAM project was trying to achieve. After the defini- tion of the brand, we had a very tangible product that we could craft our messaging around and something for both our consumers and staff to visualize as we advanced the program.”
Like Duquesne, Harvard also decided on a cloud-first strategy for the project. “The cloud provided both a cost savings and most impor- tantly a dynamic environment to allow us to quickly scale and size infrastructure to meet our expanding needs,” Vaverchak said. It has also yielded benefits beyond IAM: “Being able to leverage cloud services has meant that we can constantly adapt and modify our environments to meet our changing requirements — and that has helped grow DevOps skill sets across the team, which has made us a more agile and responsive shop overall.”
David Raths is a freelance writer based in Philadelphia.
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