Change Happens – Gartner acquires Burton
Posted by Bob Craig - Dir Prod Marketing on Fri, Jan 08, 2010
The industry analyst landscape has been going through some major changes lately. In the latest development, Gartner has acquired Burton Group shortly after snapping up AMR Research in December.
As a leader in the identity and access management (IAM) market, Courion has had positive, fruitful relationships with the IAM analysts at both firms. We have a great deal of respect for the breadth of knowledge and customer service focus demonstrated by both groups of analysts and are proud of Courion's market leadership positioning in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Provisioning and Burton's Market InSight user provisioning report.
Burton provided a valuable, independent perspective which we, many of our customers (and, yes, even our competitors), relied on for an alternative point of view. They have long had a reputation for a high level of technical expertise, while Gartner has generally placed more emphasis on the strategic business impact of IAM. While we will miss the opportunity to compare and contrast Burton's free-wheeling, technological approach with Gartner's corporate viewpoint, the combination of these points of view has the potential to significantly strengthen Gartner's IAM and other security capabilities.
We think both outlooks have a place in the market and hope that Gartner employs a "big tent" strategy that accommodates diverse points of view. Knowing the Gartner team as we do, we are optimistic they will work hard to make the Burton analysts feel welcome. It would be unfortunate if some of the exceptional, creative Burton analysts felt that their perspective wasn't appreciated at Gartner.
However this event turns out, we wish our colleagues in both organizations well and look forward to continuing to work them in the future.