Major enterprises like Nationwide and Fifth Third Bancorp are realizing the business benefits that identity federation delivers with RSA® Federated Identity Manager
BEDFORD, Mass.— RSA Security Inc. (NASDAQ: RSAS) today announced RSA® Federated Identity Manager, a new standalone solution that allows organizations to easily implement a system to securely exchange trusted identities across autonomous business units and with customers and partners. RSA Security’s customers are using identity federation today to help increase revenue opportunities; decrease application integration and user management costs; increase user productivity, security, and compliance; and exploit new business opportunities.
Identity federation, a key component of a comprehensive identity management strategy, enables organizations to share and trust digital identities across the boundaries of corporate networks and to interact more effectively with customers, business partners, and other autonomous divisions. The ability to conduct business online and access multiple applications or domains with a single, recognized identity can simplify the user experience and facilitate online collaboration between business partners. A federated identity is analogous to a passport, where one country provides individuals with a credential that is trusted and accepted as proof of identity by other countries.
RSA Security has already begun working to help organizations in various industries establish federated identity models. “Identity federation plays a critical role in Nationwide’s strategy of working effectively with our business partners and distribution channels,” said Jim Gay, associate vice president Technology Solutions at Nationwide Services Company, the IT Services division of Nationwide, one of the largest financial services companies in the world. “The use of federated identity management has positioned Nationwide to be able to introduce new products more quickly and has made it easier for independent brokers to do business with us. Nationwide is a pioneer in the identity federation environment, and we believe it will only become more important and deliver more business benefits in the coming years. We are pleased to be working with RSA Security to accelerate the implementation of this vision.”
RSA Federated Identity Manager provides the following benefits:
• Flexible, standalone solution. Unlike some federation offerings that are either development toolkits and / or inextricably linked to an identity and access management product, RSA Federated Identity Manager is a free-standing federation solution with an intuitive interface that empowers enterprises to quickly and easily implement federation relationships. The flexible, plug-in based architecture enables it to interoperate directly with applications or with various identity and access management products, including RSA ClearTrust® software. This enables enterprises to implement identity federation without compromising existing infrastructure investments.
• Integration with the RSA SecurID® solution for strong authentication. Since federation increases the power and access of a digital identity, it is critical that organizations be able to trust the validity of that identity. Through its one-of-a-kind integration with the RSA SecurID two-factor authentication solution, RSA Federated Identity Manager facilitates sharing of strongly authenticated digital identities, thereby increasing the trustworthiness of the federation system (see related May 10, 2004 press release).
• Support for the most current federation standards. RSA Federated Identity Manager supports both SAML 1.0 and 1.1, one of the most widely deployed standards for identity federation today. RSA Security demonstrated leadership in SAML 1.1 interoperability at the RSA® Conference 2004 when it hosted and participated in an Interoperability Lab co-sponsored by the US General Services Administration. The solution will also support the Liberty Alliance’s ID-FF 1.2 specification later this year. RSA Security has successfully prototyped the WS-Federation specification and demonstrated interoperability with other vendors such as Microsoft and IBM during the WS-Federation workshops. RSA Federated Identity Manager will support WS-Federation after the specification is approved or adopted by the industry.
• Enterprise-class features. RSA Federated Identity Manager was designed to meet the requirements of enterprises that intend to leverage identity federation to advance their most strategic business goals. From the powerful administrative tools, which enable quick and easy deployments, to the highly scalable architecture, which supports a large volume of users and partners, the product is a comprehensive enterprise solution that reduces the overall friction in business processes.
“Federated identity is a real business need today, but customers often have difficulty installing full-scale web access management solutions or upgrading to the latest release of a web access management product just for one federation project,” said Dan Blum, vice president, Burton Group. “Standalone, or free-standing federation products can allow easier implementation of individual federation projects.”
“RSA Security is an established leader in the identity management space, providing authentication, access management and developer solutions – and now federated identities – that help customers worldwide to reap the rewards of an effective identity infrastructure – within and beyond the enterprise,” said Jason Lewis, vice president of product management and marketing at RSA Security. “Federation is driving real business value today and RSA Federated Identity Manager helps to make it easier for enterprises to realize this value by extending their identity infrastructure to increase productivity, improve business processes and reduce costs.”
Availability
RSA Federated Identity Manager is available immediately. For more information,
please visit www.rsasecurity.com/products/fim/ or call 800-495-1095.
About RSA Security Inc.
RSA Security Inc. helps organizations protect private information and manage
the identities of people and applications accessing and exchanging that information.
RSA Security’s portfolio of solutions - including identity & access
management, secure mobile & remote access, secure enterprise access and
secure transactions - are all designed to provide the most seamless e-security
experience in the market. Our strong reputation is built on our history of ingenuity,
leadership, proven technologies and our more than 14,000 customers around the
globe. Together with more than 1,000 technology and integration partners, RSA
Security inspires confidence in everyone to experience the power and promise
of the Internet. For more information, please visit www.rsasecurity.com.
