"Anything you do that is that comprehensive has to be tested in a broad environment," says Kampman.

Felix Gaehtgens, a senior analyst for Kuppinger Cole says, "The maturity of ILM is evolving. Microsoft will be getting more experience with deployments as they go through this additional year."

While the extra year may help heal ILM's woes, it is not welcome news to users and partners.

Jackson Shaw, senior director of product management for Active Directory and integration solutions at Quest Software, wasn't happy that the news came during the company's annual The Experts Conference (TEC), which focuses on Active Directory and identity.

"There [are a lot of] scenarios with ILM that people are hyped about," says Shaw. "There are lots of regulatory issues out there, lots of people getting hit with audit issues and some customers said ILM 2.0 would get them through that. Generally speaking the customer perspective [at TEC] is disappointment."