Microsoft, IBM tackle directories, privacy
Identity management and the growing importance of directories in that paradigm will underpin new vendor products being unveiled at this week’s Burton Group Catalyst Conference in San Francisco.
As Microsoft kicks its ID management efforts into high gear, vendors including IBM, Novell, Waveset, Critical Path, Neoteris, and Sun Microsystems will unwrap at the Catalyst show auditing, password management, compliance, and secure identity portal initiatives.
Microsoft got the ID management ball rolling last week with a revamped version of its metadirectory product, dubbed MIIS (Microsoft Identity Integration Server 2003). MIIS will be demonstrated at Catalyst.
MIIS includes automated account provisioning and Web-based self-service password-management, said Michael Stevenson, lead product manager at Microsoft’s Windows Server Division in Redmond, Wash.
Microsoft also announced Identity and Access Management Solution Accelerator, a set of prescriptive guidelines created with PricewaterhouseCoopers to help build and test ID management infrastructures.
Microsoft by the end of summer will unveil ADAM (Active Directory in Application Mode). ADAM allows customers to deploy Active Directory as an LDAP directory service for application-specific data. The company also will introduce Microsoft Audit Collection System, which consolidates security event logs to identify access patterns.
Stevenson said customers using Windows Server as their central identity platform will gain Web services security development, spearheaded by its WS-Security road map focusing on interoperable trust, identity services, and standardization.
Regulatory pressures, distributed systems, and the desire to secure Web services are forcing customers to re-evaluate vendor commitment toward identity management, said Jamie Lewis, CEO and research chair at Burton Group in Salt Lake City.
Lewis said MIIS and ADAM are precursors to a larger push by Microsoft to integrate identity-based security across its bow for identity definition, policy, and role management.
“[Microsoft is] using [MIIS] with its connectors to other directories, and partnerships … to extend what Microsoft does into a portal, and then ultimately with Web services standards for interoperability with other platforms,” Lewis said.
Lewis said Microsoft will build or acquire Web-based access management technology, policy control, and delegated administration.
At Catalyst, IBM will unveil an enterprise privacy language and toolkits to help developers build privacy into applications to ease ID management, sources said.
Big Blue plans to tackle provisioning through its release of IBM Tivoli Identity Manager 4.5 next month. The product will boast enhanced customization features to automate business processes within enterprise environments, sources said.
Novell will make noise at Catalyst this week with Novell Nsure Audit — which provides secure logging, Web-based access control, and auditing — as the newest addition to the Nsure secure identity management line. An SDK will complement the release to plug-in third-party applications. The Provo, Utah-based company also will release a secure ID management road map and a SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) extension for iChain.
Meanwhile, Waveset will unveil Waveset Lighthouse Directory Master, a cross-platform administration portal for directories. The product offers a single interface for multiple directories to migrate and manage disparate identity data into a consolidated environment.
Waveset will also team with Sun at Catalyst to produce an ID management offering for PeopleSoft apps.
Critical Path will announce a password management application featuring a reusable architecture that leverages existing infrastructure components, including metadirectory.
Lastly, Neoteris will introduce Neoteris Meeting Series, an appliance for secure online meetings for 10 to 250 simultaneous users via SSL transport.
