Search This Blog

Monday, June 11, 2007

Imprivata marries identity management with physical security

Network World

Identity Management




Network World's Identity Management Newsletter, 06/11/07

Imprivata marries identity management with physical security

By Dave Kearns

I’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”.

The IDC Enterprise Panel: Join IDCs panel of IT influencers and decision-makers.

Your contributions will be compiled and distributed to technology and telecommunications vendors all over the world. As a thank you for joining, you will receive select free IDC research, and discounted IDC conference passes.

Click here to learn more

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.


  What do you think?
Post a comment on this newsletter

TODAY'S MOST-READ STORIES:

1. Word author banned for being lucky
2. Vista not playing well with IPv6
3. 4 critical Windows fixes coming next week
4. Top 15 USB geek gadgets
5. Cisco finally releases Linksys One
6. Marriott's converged network 'horror story'
7. IP address depletion looms, ARIN warns
8. Adult filmmakers taking their lumps on ‘Net?
9. 5 new ways to authenticate users
10. Bill Gates' Harvard commencement speech

MOST DOWNLOADED PODCAST:
Twisted Pair: Too much e-mail? Just give up!


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.



ARCHIVE

Archive of the Identity Management Newsletter.


BONUS FEATURE

IT 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
You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today.

International subscribers, click here.


SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES

To 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

No comments: