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Netegrity updates provisioning tools

CA's latest acquisition target rolls out a new version of its identity and access management software.

Matt Hines Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Matt Hines
covers business software, with a particular focus on enterprise applications.
Matt Hines
2 min read
Software maker Netegrity released the latest version of its identity and access management package on Monday.

The Waltham, Mass., company, which announced a $430 million buyout by Computer Associates International earlier this month, introduced IdentityMinder 6.0, an update to one of its flagship product lines. Among the functional improvements promised in the upgrade is support for relational databases, a new interface for Web services applications and increased flexibility in the product's user management tools.

Netegrity's software is used by IT administrators to allocate network identities and passwords for access to business applications and Web software. The company's products and others like them are also known as provisioning tools. Such applications have become more widely used to automate the process of providing access to business systems and to revoke access when employees leave.

According to Netegrity representatives, relational database support was one area in which the company's customers had asked the software maker to expand its products. Matthew Gardiner, product marketing manager at Netegrity, said an increasing number of the company's customers had asked for support of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) technology. Companies use LDAP to index where on a network a particular person or resource may be located.

Another emerging technology segment targeted by the product is access management for Web services applications. IdentityMinder 6.0 offers a new interface for the custom-built software tools as well as support for the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) standard. According to Netegrity, the interface will enable companies building Web services to integrate user management tasks, such as creating new users, into their applications portals.

Industry watchers have labeled the Web services provisioning-tools business as one of the elements of Netegrity from which CA might benefit, if the companies' pending merger is approved. Ron Schmelzer, an analyst at research company ZapThink, said the market for provisioning tools will continue to expand, as businesses look to build portals and Web services applications to access enterprise software systems.