IBM Monday unveiled new Tivoli software that
automates personal identity information for logging onto networks and
computers, an upgrade that keeps pace with the company’s other product
lines.
The Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM said it expects the new integrated identity
management portfolio, which a Forrester Research analyst said was
unsurpassed in terms of breadth, to help organizations reduce costs, meet
compliance requirements, improve service levels and bolster security.
Identity management became a serious concern in the aftermath of the
terrorist attacks two years ago. Fearing a holistic shutdown of the
Internet, enterprise software companies were called upon to create more
security computing environments. Companies such as Sun Microsystems,
Microsoft and IBM have since stepped up to improve and federate network
security and identity management.
For the past year or so, Big Blue has been a leading champion of software
automation, which falls under its company-wide on-demand computing strategy
to guide business processes more with product than with personnel.
The Austin-based Tivoli unit has been automating much of its software for the
past year, tailoring it for storage
and database
infrastructure.
Many of these automated management and provisioning technology upgrades came
courtesy of IBM’s acquisition of Think Dynamics, whose assets the company has been integrating into its Tivoli line.
To wit, IBM has bolstered integration and automation in its IBM Tivoli
portfolio, including its Access Manager family, Tivoli Identity Manager, IBM
Tivoli Privacy
Manager, IBM Tivoli Directory Integrator and IBM Tivoli Directory Server in
the hopes of fostering a safer computing environment for partners,
suppliers, customers and employees.
Tivoli Access Manager version 5.1 has two new functions to make applications
run smarter and more efficient. Joe Anthony, director of integrated identity
management at IBM Tivoli, said the new Dynamic Rules Engine automatically
pulls user information from any source, such as finance or supply chain
applications, in order to grant users access. This new approach will help
eliminate redundant access control lists.
In one scenario of how the engine works, Anthony told
internetnews.com a bank may need to confirm that a user is over 21
years old and meets a minimum credit rating before it okays a transaction.
The new tool could more quickly survey the student’s data and determine if
the deal can go through. This new function is performed outside individual
applications.
In the second new Access Manager feature, Anthony said Dynamic Group Support
helps companies to apply access control decisions for employees, partners or
suppliers based on organization membership, job codes, divisions or reseller
categories.
“Companies spend millions of dollars each year on manual processes,” Anthony
said, noting that hard-coding and waiting for applications to update can be
quite time consuming.
Tivoli Identity Manager version 4.5, which feeds digital identities to
computer systems, now comes with an automated customer workflow engine that
swiftly handles requests such as revoking an employee’s security badge
based on preset policies.
A new automated lifecycle management feature also lets businesses create
custom processes, or modify out-of-the-box processes, and execute them on
the fly. A company can set automated triggers to send re-certification
requests every few months or so. IBM Tivoli Identity Manager updates the
contractor’s access rights.
Because of the breadth of IBM’s management software offerings, Anthony said
the company often finds itself competing with point product vendors such as
Netegrity for access management, or WaveSet for ID management. Even Sun only
bumps up against Tivoli with its directory server and Microsoft ID
management is endemic to Windows.
Forrester Research Director Jonathan Penn recently issued a report in which
he detailed the identity management space and cited IBM as a market leader.
“IBM has become the big gorilla in identity management jungle and is the
competitor against which all vendors must compete,” Penn wrote. “Several
other major vendors also have multiple identity management products, most
notably Novell, Computer Associates and Sun. Each sells well into their
existing customer base, which is substantial and not to be dismissed, but
they have not been as visible as IBM in competitive situations.”
In other updates: IBM Tivoli Directory Integrator version 5.2, which
integrates with the line’s Identity Manager will be enhanced to provide
real-time synchronization among more identity data sources. Benefiting from
the technology of IBM’s MetaMerge purchase, it also provides password
synchronization capabilities with IBM Tivoli Directory Server, Microsoft
Active Directory and Sun ONE Directory Server.
This tight integration links IBM’s user provisioning software to custom
applications to facilitate identity management projects by leveraging
disparate data
sources – such as multiple directories and databases.
Additionally, IBM Tivoli Privacy Manager version 1.2 now provides real-time
compliance checks of up to 100 transactions per second and new monitors for
packaged and custom applications.
To accommodate the portfolio refresh, IBM said that more than 30 new
partners and resellers have agreed to endorse identity management software.
Tivoli Identity Manager 4.5 and Tivoli Privacy Manager 1.2 are available
now. Tivoli Access Manager 5.1 family, IBM Tivoli Directory Integrator 5.2
and IBM Tivoli Directory Server 5.2 will be available before the end of the
year.
IBM’s ‘Automated’ Identity Management Upgrade
