Identity ManagementThis newsletter is sponsored by Arsenal Digital Solutions Data Protection: Implementing an Effective Company-Wide Strategy Network World's Identity Management Newsletter, 06/11/07Imprivata marries identity management with physical securityBy Dave KearnsI’ve often said that if a company could do one thing well, it would be a successful business. Of course, you need to leverage that one thing. Take Google, for example. At bottom it’s merely a search and catalog company but it has leveraged its search engine and cataloging skills so that Google permeates online life. In identity management, the same could be said of Imprivata. Imprivata is justly famous for its OneSign appliance, a simplified sign-on (SSO) device that controls authentication and access. It does that very well. Now, though, it wants expand on that and has launched a full-scale effort to converge logical access (through the SSO device) with physical access (doors, buildings, etc.). CEO Omar Hussain and VP of Marketing Communications Molly Galetto got on the phone with me recently to explain that after the company joined the Open Security Exchange (OSE) - a cross-industry forum dedicated to merging physical and IT security solutions throughout an enterprise – last fall it didn’t rest on its press release. It went full bore to implement a convergence solution. You can read more about this in Imprivata’s white paper, “Bridging the Great Divide: The Convergence of Physical and Logical Security”.
Imprivata isn‘t doing the physical security; that’s not its forte. Instead it’s partnering with just about every provider of electronic physical access to create a converged solution for its clients. That’s excellent leverage when you consider that most folks interested in converged solutions already have the physical security in place and probably wouldn’t want to have to replace all of their door locks just to make some administrator’s job easier. While we were chatting about convergence, Hussain mentioned in passing something that was really impressive to me: OneSign will now support contextual authentication – it will pass the context of the authentication transaction (the who, when, where, how of the transaction) on to your rules engine which can then make decisions about access and authorization based on the context. For example, different access can be allowed to someone signing on from their desktop, their home machine or an Internet café. This is important if any of your users have access to sensitive or protected data. Imprivata is successfully leveraging its strength to provide new services for its clients all built on its successful “engine.” Hussain is hoping it’s as successful for his company as it was for Google.
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Contact the author: Dave Kearns is a writer and consultant in Silicon Valley. He's written a number of books including the (sadly) now out of print "Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Networks." His musings can be found at Virtual Quill. Kearns is the author of two Network World Newsletters: Windows Networking Strategies, and Identity Management. Comments about these newsletters should be sent to him at these respective addresses: windows@vquill.com, identity@vquill.com . Kearns provides content services to network vendors: books, manuals, white papers, lectures and seminars, marketing, technical marketing and support documents. Virtual Quill provides "words to sell by..." Find out more by e-mail. This newsletter is sponsored by Arsenal Digital Solutions Data Protection: Implementing an Effective Company-Wide Strategy ARCHIVEArchive of the Identity Management Newsletter. BONUS FEATUREIT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICESTo subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: security.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007 |
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