Novell’s Sentinel Watches Over Your Network

Novell  is making life easier for IT security administrators.

The enterprise software vendor has integrated the Sentinel security and event management software from e-Security, which it acquired in April, with its SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and identity management suite.

Called Sentinel from Novell, the software scans information and events in firewalls, routers, intrusion detection systems, mainframes, network devices, vulnerability scanners, anti-virus and configuration management tools.

The software also pulls and correlates logs so that administrators get a single view of events, rather than having to view all the logs from disparate systems and devices.

The move should improve Novell’s identity management software suite, which the company sells to help administrators guard against violations of access policies and document the effectiveness of their IT controls.

This in turn helps enterprises comply with their compliance mandates, such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA.

Simon Vining, director of product marketing for Novell’s identity business unit, explained that Sentinel originally gave administrators a view of the “what” and the “where” of a network event.

With Novell’s touches, the software also lets users see the “who.”

“You add identity and put the events into context,” he told internetnews.com.

Yankee Group analyst George Hamilton applauded the bundling.

The combination “gives you a big picture view of all the little tactical solutions you have out there,” noted Hamilton.

He qualified Sentinel as “one of the best tools out there,” and said combining identity access management with security event management would benefit customers.

Sentinel from Novell also now has German, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese language support for multinational customers.

Novell’s identity management software plays a crucial role at the company, which, in the course of remaining viable, has turned to Linux and identity management software for salvation.

Last year, the company announced a new security product, Security Manager, and acquired security vendor Immunix in order to be able to offer AppArmor.

Both products focus on identity management for Linux.

Novell is also active in a project named Bandit, the aim of which is to develop an Internet-wide identity security solution.

The strategic emphasis on identity may be starting to pay off.

When Novell last reported earnings in May, revenue from its systems, security and identity management business was up 16 percent from the prior year. Identity and access management jumped 37 percent from the same period a year ago.