Vendors Buy into ID Management--Literally

Why all the acquisitions? Because they're the fastest way to develop a suite of ID-management tools. Oracle, for example, now owns both Thor and Oblix, which address different aspects of the identity-management and provisioning problem. Combine those with products it gets for free from Web services management and security vendor Confluent (through its Oblix acquisition), and Oracle now has a full portfolio.

Thor gives Oracle the provisioning and full systems-management capabilities it didn't get from Oblix, and plays well into its Fusion architecture plans. This positions Oracle to compete with CA and IBM, which also have built their portfolios on the strength of acquisitions.