Oracle Set to Stake Security Claim


When it comes to security software, Oracle  in the
past would not have rated near Symantec
, McAfee  or even IBM.


The times they are a changin’; the company has beefed up its security
software portfolio and is ready to take the RSA Conference 2007 show in San
Francisco by storm next week.


“Oracle has not traditionally had a real strong presence at RSA,” said Wynn
White, vice president of security and management products at Oracle. “Each
year, we’re getting more and more of a presence.”


White is not exaggerating. Oracle is a platinum sponsor for RSA and Larry
Ellison, who makes few public appearances on Oracle’s behalf, will be a
keynote speaker Wednesday.


At RSA, Oracle will introduce the Management Pack for Identity Management,
which lets customers manage Oracle security software from a single console.


The software, an adaptation of the Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g management
software specifically for ID management, lets businesses locate ID
management tools in a computer system, monitor system performance, and find
and fix faults. The pack also helps apply service levels to ID
management services and automates configuration changes.


White said managing identity systems from the operating system through the
application layer and finally to the end user is necessary at a time when so
many disparate pieces of a datacenter need to be kept track of.


Moreover, in keeping with Oracle identity management software’s ability to
work with a range of third-party application servers, databases and
operating systems, the new pack will care for Oracle and non-Oracle
products.


For example, an administrator monitoring Oracle Identity Manager on BEA
WebLogic can link to Microsoft Active Directory and centrally manage the
three products from the same console.


Oracle’s ID management suite, which competes with similar offerings from IBM
, HP , CA  Ping
Identity and other security vendors, was created from a combination of
in-house development and the acquisitions of Oblix, Thor Technologies and
OctetString.


The stack includes Oracle Access Manager, Oracle Identity Federation, Oracle
Enterprise Single Sign-on, Oracle Identity Manager, Oracle Internet
Directory, Oracle Virtual Directory and Oracle Web Services Manager.


In other Oracle security news, the company said its ID management software
is now certified to work with Oracle E-Business Suite 12 and Oracle’s Siebel
8 applications.


The suite will also be certified with Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise 9 and
J.D. Edwards EnterpriseOne 8.12 applications by June.


Such certifications give customers more choices for implementing security
across their various human resource management, supply chain management and
enterprise resource planning applications.


This in turn helps businesses meet stringent security and compliance
requirements.


Finally, Oracle Database Vault, which allows admins to dictate policies for
certain employees to access certain data, is now certified to work with
Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise applications.


For example, an administrator won’t be able to access sensitive financial
data from a database or confidential employee information from a human
resources application.


White said Oracle will eventually certify Siebel and J.D. Edwards
applications on the Oracle Database Vault.

Get the Free Newsletter!

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

News Around the Web