Juniper Networks and Imprivata both offer identity and access management in appliances rather than software. After examining these devices and speaking with the vendors, we determined that they didn't meet all the prerequisites for our review.
However, appliances are an excellent alternative for companies that don't have the time or money to invest in a large-scale IAM infrastructure, because they're nonintrusive and typically don't require changes to an organization's servers.
Both vendors said some customers use an appliance along with a full IAM package, because appliances typically offer more of a security-based approach than straight identity management, plus additional access control to files or applications.
Imprivata offers a self-contained SSO appliance called OneSign (pictured). The device's Automated Profile Generator is quite impressive; however, the product requires that every desktop contain an agent that communicates in the background with the appliance. And though the device does offer the convenience of SSO to end users, administrators still must address resource allocation.
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