Bob Blakley at the Burton Group just published a report on “The Business of Identity Services”. He focuses on services at the identity provider side and outlines possible identity services businesses on the identity provider side in some detail.

It seems he is more optimistic about new identity services business opportunities than I am at this time.

He concludes:

Business opportunities for identity services providers are being created by the expansion of the
universe of identity requirements and by severe cost pressures arising from the recession that began in 2008. Identity services businesses have emerged in response to these opportunities, and more such businesses will continue to emerge in the coming few years. The time to start evaluating these services and judging their cost reduction potential and business risks is now.

Perhaps we don’t really disagree. After all, there is a big timing difference between enterprises starting to evaluate something (which is what he recommends at this time), and the time something actually is deployed (which is when there might actually be a business, which was the focus of my post).