Home · About · A-Z Index · Search · Contacts · Press · Register · Login

Press Release

Media Contact

Maryann Karinch
The Open Group
+1 650 726 7020

Leading Suppliers of Identity Management Solutions Share Deployment Strategies at The Open Group Conference

San Francisco, CA – February 6, 2003 – The first year of efforts to develop a global framework for identity management culminated in a conference hosted yesterday by The Open Group that featured presentations by leading suppliers of identity management solutions. The Identity Management Conference is part of a week of sessions on Boundaryless Information Flow: Keeping IT Secure, which runs through Friday at the Hyatt Regency, San Francisco Airport.

The companies describing their progress in identity management were (in order of presentation) Novell, Business Layers, ePresence, Computer Associates, IBM, and VeriSign. All participants focused on a question that arose from The Open Group’s identity management conference in January 2002:

Can we develop a global framework for identity management in which the communities that an individual belongs to can operate—and cooperate—effectively, while maintaining the right of the individual to privacy, to dignity, and to be in control of his or her destiny?

“The Open Group’s members recognize identity management as a key issue of our time,” said Allen Brown, President and CEO of The Open Group. “Over the past year, they have made tremendous progress working within our Directory Interoperability Forum toward developing a global identity management framework.”

Justin Taylor, Chief Strategist for Directory Services, Novell, delivered the keynote presentation entitled “The Evolution of Identity Management in a Web Services World.” He also concluded the day’s presentations by describing Novell’s approach to identity management implementation.

"While perimeter defenses and similar security mechanisms continue to play an important role in
securing IT, they're only half the story,” said Novell’s Taylor. “In a world of Web services, a world without network boundaries, identity management becomes an essential part of the security infrastructure. Understanding a user's identity—his or her role and relationship with a company—allows businesses to ensure that authorized users, and only authorized users, have access to the right resources at the right time."

Gavenraj Sodhi of Business Layers addressed identity management and provisioning standards at the conference. Sodhi’s presentation centered on how such standards can provide identity management infrastructure product interoperability.

In “The Art of Identity Management,” Rene Head, Senior Solution Architect or ePresence, covered the many types of identities to be maintained, tools and techniques for conquering the infrastructures, integration of the systems and applications into a cohesive infrastructure service, and creating the solution through blended colors (identities) and canvas (infrastructures).

Toby Weiss, Senior Vice President, eTrust Identity Management Development, Computer Associates, focused on the challenges of identity management. Weiss also looked at The Open Group’s business scenario, which examines the requirements for identity management, the environment in which it must exist, and implementation architectures that have been proposed for it. He concluded with insights on a strategy for implementation.

Ian Glazer of IBM gave a concise history of identity management in “Identity Management—The State of the Union.” Glazer described how organizations can implement solutions that span existing legacy deployments, web and portal applications, and finally, web services.

In “Lifecycle of Identity Management,” VeriSign’s Mandeep Khera, Product Line Manager, Enterprises Services, covered the value of managing identities over the life cycle. He used case studies to illustrate how to solve key issues.

About The Open Group

The Open Group, a vendor-neutral and technology-neutral consortium, has a vision of Boundaryless Information Flow achieved through global interoperability in a secure, reliable and timely manner. The Open Group’s mission is to drive the creation of Boundaryless Information Flow by working with customers to capture, understand and address current and emerging requirements, establish policies, and share best practices; working with suppliers, consortia and standards bodies to develop consensus and facilitate interoperability, to evolve and integrate specifications and open source technologies; offering a comprehensive set of services to enhance the operational efficiency of consortia; and developing and operating the industry's premier certification service and encouraging procurement of certified products.