Fast Track

Secure Identity Management

Tejas Lagad

Identity management is a topic of keen interest to many organisations that have distributed operations and a large numbers of stakeholders who need secure access to vital corporate data. Identity management software solution providers usually have a complete offering of cross-platform identity management products, including directory, meta directory, provisioning, single sign-on, and secure access solutions.

“Customers employ identity management for a variety of reasons. One is to reduce costs associated with user account management and password management. Another is to enhance security by using an integrated identity management solution to provide a foundation for policy-based security, rather than ad hoc solutions,” says Tejas Lagad, Product Manager for secure Identity Management Solutions, Novell.

Enterprises are becoming aware of an emerging class of applications which are strongly influenced by identity. These applications are fundamentally different from traditional transaction-based ones. They extract data from relatively static data sources, such as a relational database, using a Web services-based integration interface. The data is combined with logic and data components that may be from disparate applications, and delivered to the user via a Web browser.

Identity becomes the foundation for establishing what the user or system can do with the information, in the context of a personalised portal, enterprise dashboard, or collaboration application. To meet the challenge, companies must give employees greater and simplified access to business resources. Customers and trading partners should be able to transact with the company electronically, at the same time keeping the business resources safe and secure.

—Kusum Makhija