Identity Management

Symplified's CEO will argue at an upcoming conference one way to deal with the problem: Push access management and control into the cloud

CA Technologies has gotten its feet wet with cloud-based security before, but now the company is moving further in with a package of cloud based identity and access control services.

Privileged identity management (PIM) products automate control over administrative accounts, which typically put too much power in too many people's hands with too little accountability. They address the security, operational and compliance issues posed by the widely shared administrative accounts and passwords, excessive administrative rights, poor separation of duties, embedded passwords in legacy applications and scripts, and poor or nonexistent privileged-password rotation. They also provide individual accountability and an audit trail to prove that policies and controls are actually being enforced.

"The No.1 priority is now identity and access management,” says Gartner research director Vic Wheatman, noting the analysis is based on a close look at what IT security professionals at 308 companies are telling Gartner about their overall information spending and specific IT security projects.

CA Identity Manager can now be used to automate processes, such as provisioning and de-provisioning user access, for Salesforce.com’s sales forecasting application.

Microsoft executives say the company's ambitious plan to integrate security and identity software is progressing slower than hoped but that the foundation for the work will be set early next year.

Novell plans to use its capital to acquire companies in the areas of open-source software as well as software for data centers and identity management.