New IBM Software Simplifies Application Security for Service Oriented Architectures

ARMONK, NY, May 20 (MARKET WIRE) --
IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced details of new application security software
designed to help clients securely manage employee, partner and customer IT users
and their access to company applications and information.

The new release of IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager software focuses on
enabling a company's separate business divisions to deploy secure software
applications using open standards and a wide range of security credentials
without
needing to embed complex security logic into each application. The solution
simplifies application integration using many forms of user credentials and
facilitates the secure sharing of information between trusted parties -- such as
business partners or separately managed divisions within an organization
operating in an SOA environment.

IBM, the current leader in Identity and Access Management software
revenue,according to analyst firm IDC (1), bolsters its existing portfolio with
this
new release that provides new management capabilities, user-centric identity
technology and substantially extended interoperability with several open
industry standards and other vendors' software.

"With its extended interoperability, IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager
is
uniquely positioned to simplify application security integration, enabling
business
process and application owners to deliver their services without being
constrained
by IT security and compliance issues," said Venkat Raghavan, director of
product management, IBM Tivoli security, risk and compliance software. "This
enables clients to tie together various organizational and business silos while
also simplifying the integration between their company and partners' Web sites."

The vexing challenge for developers building applications is how to deal
with
the multitude of user credentials that need to be managed while providing
end-to-end security. Using an office building analogy, end-to-end security could
entail electronic locks opened by employee badges on the front door and keys
for individual offices and file cabinets that store business critical
information. Similarly, in the IT environment, it is common to have a single
application that needs to support many forms of user credentials as business
processes and organizations are linked across many facets of a company,
including mainframe applications. Managing and securing access to a company's
many services, applications and data are needed to meet security and
compliance requirements.

This new IBM Tivoli software release automates the management of user
credentials across applications without the application specialists
needingto be security experts. Application owners define the type of credential
needed
based on an application's risk profile, and end users who present their
credentials are automatically signed-on and given access to the various parts
of the applications as appropriate. The software also provides auditors with a
single view of the credentials used to help validate that the user access
matches policy.

IBM Software Brings New User-Centric Identity to SOA Applications

The new IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager now provides businesses the
flexibility to integrate with leading user-centric identity management
technology
and frameworks, including OpenID, Microsoft Windows CardSpace and Eclipse's
Higgins
Identity Frameworks.

User-centric identity management provides a means for users to control
whatinformation they share about themselves. Similar to a college id, driver's
license
and a passport, the user is able to choose which identification claims will be
used when
a situation requires it. IBM software now enables organizations to bring these
identities into one central, federated identity management system that supports
traditional identities in addition to the emerging user-centric frameworks.

While reusing existing applications and Web services can dramatically reduce
SOA
implementation costs, applications are often developed independently and have
different formats to define, share and audit user identities. IBM Tivoli
Federated Identity Manager's built-in SOA Identity Service provides the ability
to
manage and audit identities across a wide range of formats and vendors'
applications to help maintain identity context throughout use in an SOA
environment. This helps provide clients a unified approach to manage and
report on user identities across shared applications, including portal
environments.

The software now supports various user and application credentials such as
RACF Passticket, Kerberos, SAML, WS-Security and platform specific credentials
used by Microsoft .NET, IBM WebSphere, SAP NetWeaver, Oracle and CA. When
combined with leading user-centric identity management technology and
frameworks,
including OpenID, Microsoft Windows CardSpace and Eclipse's Higgins Identity
Frameworks, the software provides the required flexibility for business
process and application owners to quickly and securely provide services to their
business.

"Already a recognized leader in federated identity management, one should
expect
IBM's ability to extend its integration with other vendors' Web access
management software and the major open standards and user-centric identity
management
approaches to help speed the adoption of secure SOA and federated identity
around the world," said Sally Hudson, research director within IDC's security
products and services group.

IBM's Tivoli security software helps prevent unauthorized access to valuable
customer, employee and business data and facilitates compliance with corporate
security policy and regulatory requirements. It is part of IBM's portfolio
of service management software which automates some of the most challenging
processes associated with managing complex IT environments, such as managing
storage devices and deploying new software releases and patches. The software
helps customers fight rising IT costs, manage constant change and meet the
demand to stay competitive.

The new IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager will be generally available
worldwide
in June 2008.

For more information on IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager, visit
www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/products/federated-identity-mgr/.

(1) IDC, "Worldwide Identity and Access Management 2007-2011 Forecast and
2006 Vendor Shares," Doc # 207609, July 2007.

Press Contact:
Lon Levitan
IBM Media Relations
512-823-0404
llevitan@us.ibm.com

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