Online Marketplace Manages Disparate Identity Information Using

Online Marketplace Manages Disparate Identity Information Using Online Marketplace Manages Disparate Identity Information Using Integration Server Overview "[MIIS 2003] has simplified every aspect of our Country or Region: United States synchronization system…. We now have an easy way Industry: Worldwide Online Marketplace to modify, manage, and control the system using the Customer Profile GUI tools provided by MIIS." eBay is the world's online marketplace for the sale of goods and services by a diverse Diego Vinas, Project Manager, eBay community of individuals and small businesses. eBay manages identity information for its internal workforce using disparate systems that require synchronization to provide a single Business Situation eBay needed a scalable, maintainable view of employee information. Due to its rapid expansion, eBay’s identity management solution to provide a internally developed synchronization engine became difficult to consistent single view of employee data from disparate systems including Active maintain and was lacking in scalability, supportability, and Directory?, Remedy, and SAP. manageability. “We grew so fast, we had to find the best tools on Solution hand to solve our immediate problems,” says Diego Vinas, Project eBay chose Microsoft? Identity Integration Manager for eBay. Faced with the task of finding a replacement for Server 2003 as the solution architecture best able to support eBay’s identity its synchronization engine, eBay’s Centralize People Database management synchronization and (CPD) project team engaged Unisys, a Microsoft? Gold Certified metadata repository requirements. Partner. Unisys implemented Microsoft Identity Integration Server Benefits (MIIS) 2003 as the single source for employee identity information, , Scalability and maintainability , Accessibility and availability thereby offering eBay a scalable, maintainable solution that , Simplified systems management simplifies management and improves efficiency. Situation The HR data is managed by eBay’s Human “MIIS 2003 makes it Founded in September 1995, eBay is the Resources department. much easier to add new world's online marketplace for the sale of goods and services by a diverse community To maintain the timeliness and consistency of systems and groups into of individuals and small businesses. Today, the employee information in these disparate our synchronized the eBay community includes more than a systems, the data is synchronized, stored in a hundred million registered members from metadata repository, and shared between environment.” around the world. eBay’s auction services these systems. The synchronized identity Diego Vinas, Project Manager, eBay allow customers to browse, buy, and sell information provides a single, coherent view practically anything?millions of items are of employee information that is used to listed and purchased on eBay each day. In support downstream applications such as fact, people spend more time on eBay than eBay’s online corporate employee directory. on any other online site, making it the most popular shopping destination on the Internet. Limited Maintainability of Synchronization Scripts Based in San Jose, California, eBay is globally Due to eBay’s rapid growth, the logic for dispersed and uses localized sites to serve synchronizing its identity information was more than 20 countries. eBay maintains developed internally and embedded in a nearly 10,000 employees to support its number of complex Practical Extraction and operations. When someone is hired to work Report Language (Perl) scripts. The Perl at eBay, the person’s information must be scripts allowed identity information to be entered in eBay’s identity management updated and stored in a separate metadata system. To do this, the IT staff must prepare repository. Due to their complexity, all required resources before the new hire’s maintaining the Perl scripts involved a time-first day on site, including authorization to consuming, manual process where IT staff access eBay’s facilities and systems. had to search for the specific logic rules and attributes needed to complete a particular The initial point of entry for a new hire is BMC change. Administrators found the process of Software’s Remedy, a service management examining another developer’s customized software solution that maintains general code difficult and unreliable. employee information, such as phone numbers and cubicle locations. Another point Unorthodox, Synchronized Metadata of entry is the Active Directory? directory Repository service, part of the Microsoft? Windows? The customized synchronization engine operating system, to provide user accounts stored the employee data in a metadata such as the Microsoft Windows NT? logon repository that was contained within the and password, and e-mail. The data for Remedy database (which is different from the eBay’s alternative workforce (AWF) Remedy employee data source described employees including contractors, consultants, previously). “This wasn’t the intended and part-time employees is maintained in purpose of the Remedy database,” says these systems under IT management. Vinas. “By customizing the software in an unorthodox way, eBay increased the risk of The information for full-time employees is database malfunctions to a level that also set up in the SAP R/3 Human Resources extended beyond the normal scope of (HR) module as the primary repository and Remedy’s vendor support services.” authoritative source for all eBay employees. Because eBay did not use a separate Server (MIIS) 2003, which is part of Microsoft ? integrated server database, the applications that needed to Windows Server System software, as the solution architecture best use the metadata repository had to access able to support eBay’s synchronization and Remedy, making accessibility and metadata repository requirements. maintenance inefficient and difficult. MIIS 2003 is a centralized service that Limited System Supportability and Reliability creates, stores, and distributes an integrated As eBay continued to grow, the customized view of identity information from multiple synchronization solution proved functional, data sources. MIIS 2003 can help reduce the but it had limited supportability. For example, risk and complexity associated with building, if the IT staff needed to temporarily shut down the Remedy database for malfunctions, deploying, and maintaining an end-to-end maintenance, or updates, the metadata identity and access management solution. repository contained in the database would also be temporarily inaccessible to the entire The goal of MIIS 2003 is to provide organizations with a single, unified view of all company, affecting efficiency and productivity. known identity information about users, During this downtime, vital employee and applications, and network resources. MIIS company information such as phone 2003 helps to improve productivity, reduce numbers, e-mail addresses, and work security risk, and reduce the total cost of locations was inaccessible. ownership (TCO) associated with managing and integrating identity information across an The dependency on the Remedy database as enterprise. the metadata repository limited reliability and performance, and offered a single point of In March 2004, Unisys performed an initial failure for the synchronization of data with implementation of MIIS 2003. Lab SAP. As a global enterprise with data arriving development took five weeks—two weeks for from many different sources, eBay needed a design and three weeks for implementation. better way to synchronize and store employee Unisys built a “miniaturized” new-hire identity information. database using data from eBay’s production systems. In May 2004, eBay completed Instead of a limited, workaround environment, testing and implemented the MIIS 2003 eBay needed a supportable identity system in its production environment. management solution that offered reliable access—a fault-tolerant, scalable Microsoft Identity Integration System synchronization engine with the capability to As shown in the figure below, the eBay grow with the company and one that could be system uses two Dell PowerEdge servers—maintained without intensive effort. one for primary and one for standby—that run Solution MIIS 2003 on the Microsoft Windows In search of a replacement for its Server? 2003 Enterprise Edition operating synchronization engine, eBay performed a system. MIIS 2003 manages the flow of data detailed analysis of major automated identity between all connected data sources and lifecycle management systems. In doing so, automates the process of updating employee eBay turned to Unisys, a Microsoft Gold identity information in eBay’s environment. Certified Partner, to help find an effective solution. The Unisys proof-of-concept study recommended Microsoft Identity Integration Hub SiteBecause the SAP servers are hosted by a third-party vendor and located behind a firewall, eBay opted for an indirect connection Recovery Siteto MIIS 2003. “Because of the problems we MIIS PrimaryMIIS Standby 1had in the previous environment, we wanted SQL Clusterto limit the number of direct connections,” said Vinas. As a result, SAP information is MIIS Standby 2transferred to the MIIS synchronization SQL Virtual Serverengine using webMethods middleware. LogheartbeatShipping In eBay’s MIIS 2003 environment, application SQL StandbyCluster node 1Cluster node 2developers require a method to access data Manual DBSCSI Drive ArrayRecoveryfrom the MIIS metaverse for non-connected LogQourumDBapplications. eBay selected Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) as an extensible MIIS stores identity information in a separate architecture that could isolate and expose all Microsoft SQL Server? 2000 database, synchronized data in MIIS for querying rather than in tables that are part of the applications. ADAM is a Lightweight Directory Remedy database. In eBay’s environment, Access Protocol (LDAP) directory service that the MIIS 2003 system uses Microsoft SQL runs as a user service, rather than as a Server? 2000 Enterprise Edition with Service system service, to provide data storage and Pack 3, configured locally in a clustered, high-retrieval for directory-enabled applications. availability configuration, as the metaverse repository for identity information. SQL Server In place of Perl scripts, eBay uses the 2000 is scalable, reliable, fault-tolerant, and graphical user interface (GUI) in MIIS 2003 to transactional (roll-back, event logging). eBay set up and, if necessary, change basic uses log shipping to its recovery site in synchronization rules, such as who owns the Germany to prevent data loss and to ensure data. For example, as mentioned previously, business continuity. the primary source for employee information resides in SAP, whereas contractor Remedy is the initial point of entry for information is stored in Remedy. employee information that is available to the MIIS 2003 system. Because all eBay While you can configure most rules directly, employees and contractors are required to administrators can customize the way MIIS have a Remedy account as new hires, 2003 works by creating rules extensions. At Remedy is also the best data source for the eBay, rules extensions are created by using creation of the initial MIIS 2003 metaverse the Microsoft Visual Studio? .NET 2003 entries. development system. Rules extensions are implemented as a Microsoft .NET Framework eBay uses Active Directory to manage its class library or as a dynamic-link library (DLL). network infrastructure and provide user accounts for its employees and contractors. Benefits In the eBay infrastructure, Active Directory The addition of MIIS 2003 to eBay’s IT connects directly to MIIS 2003, eliminating environment delivers a scalable identity the need to create any new code. management solution that can be easily maintained and managed. MIIS 2003 provides efficiencies that simplify maintenance, improve productivity, and MIIS 2003 also increases the flow of reduce the administrative cost of keeping information. “Many of the groups interested employee identity information up-to-date in joining our MIIS engine enjoy the fact that across the enterprise. MIIS 2003 enhances the synchronized data is available in real and streamlines eBay’s synchronization time,” says Vinas. process and metadata repository, improving reliability and lowering the TCO. Simplified Systems Management eBay has simplified and reduced its Improved Scalability and Maintainability operational complexity to one solution that By using MIIS 2003, eBay has implemented a can handle identity management. In fact, synchronization solution capable of MIIS 2003 streamlines eBay’s supporting the company’s explosive growth. synchronization process. “Microsoft Identity “MIIS 2003 makes it much easier to add new Integration Server 2003 has simplified every systems and groups into our synchronized aspect of our synchronization system,” says environment,” says Vinas. By using MIIS Vinas. “With MIIS, groups can easily share 2003, eBay can now incorporate its information such as telephone numbers or telecommunication and security groups into extract information such as recent hires or the identity management solution. eBay also terminations. We now have an easy way to plans to integrate other organizations as well modify, manage, and control the system as its method of viewing the data. using the GUI tools provided by MIIS.” In addition, MIIS 2003 GUI tools can be used By using SQL Server 2000 tables instead of to change information such as the system, Remedy to support the MIIS 2003 metaverse, attribute flow, and attribute precedent. “All of eBay has significantly simplified the support this information is available in the GUI,” says requirements for maintaining the Remedy Vinas. “We’ve eliminated the need to database. In addition, in the previous decipher customized code and manually environment, eBay’s unorthodox use of update the logic in complicated Remedy tables affected vendor support for synchronization scripts.” Remedy. “Now we don’t have to support and maintain the metadata repository in Improved Accessibility and Availability Remedy,” says Vinas. “And by using the eBay’s MIIS 2003 solution gives employees, Remedy database in a conventional way, we groups, and applications unlimited access to receive full vendor support.” a convenient single view of employee identity information. Future Plans One of eBay’s upcoming projects is to use eBay uses ADAM to isolate the metaverse MIIS 2003 to automate the provisioning and repository in MIIS 2003, allowing custom deprovisioning of accounts in an enterprise applications to query synchronized data from environment. “MIIS 2003 is a great tool for an enterprise directory. “By creating a managing synchronized identity information common metadata repository, we’ve helped data on different systems,” says Vinas. eBay eliminate the need to re-create identity “We’re very happy with MIIS. In fact, there are information,” says David Rusting, Senior many options within MIIS 2003 that we have Solutions Architect at Unisys. MIIS 2003 not yet implemented, but we look forward to provides convenient access to clean, using in the near future.” consistent identity data such as for access control and simple record-keeping. For More Information Microsoft Windows Server For more information about Microsoft System products and services, call the Microsoft Microsoft Windows Server System integrated Sales Information Center at (800) 426-server infrastructure software is designed to 9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft support end-to-end solutions built on the Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-Windows Server operating system. Windows 2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-Server System creates an infrastructure hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone based on integrated innovation, Microsoft's (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in holistic approach to building products and the United States or (905) 568-9641 in solutions that are intrinsically designed to Canada. Outside the 50 United States and work together and interact seamlessly with Canada, please contact your local other data and applications across your IT Microsoft subsidiary. To access information environment. This helps you reduce the costs using the World Wide Web, go to: of ongoing operations, deliver a more secure www.microsoft.com and reliable IT infrastructure, and drive valuable new capabilities for the future For more information about Unisys growth of your business. products and services, call (800) 874- 8647 or visit the Web site at: For more information about Windows Server www.unisys.com System, go to: www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem For more information about eBay products and services, call (408) 376-7400 or visit the Web site at: www.ebay.com Software and Services Hardware , Products , Dell PowerEdge servers ? Microsoft Identity Integration Server 2003 ? Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition ? Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 ? Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition , Technologies ? 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case ? Microsoft Active Directory study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. ? Microsoft .NET Framework Microsoft, Active Directory, Visual Studio, Windows, the Windows logo, Windows NT, Windows Server, and Windows Server System are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. Document published February 2006