RSA to integrate identification products
The security company is pulling its identity and access management products into a single framework called Nexus that will be compliant with Liberty Alliance authentication.
Announcing the strategy at the RSA Conference 2003 here, the company said current products will be brought piece by piece into its system called Nexus.
"It's an incremental change," said John Worral, product marketing manager at RSA. "We have interoperability. The next level is integration." The products will be tightly integrated, so they can be managed in one place. The upgrade will place Liberty-compliant technology at its core.
RSA, which is a founding member of Liberty, has been saying that it would release Liberty-compliant software.
The Sun Microsystems-backed Liberty Alliance Project is working on a "single sign-on" standard that lets people who verify their identity on one Web site carry over that authenticated status when moving to other Web sites.
Products fitting into Nexus will include ClearTrust access management, RSA mobile one-time access codes, SecureID two-factor authentication and Keon digital certificates. The common services will include user management, identity authority services, access authority and integration services. Other features such as provisioning will be provided by third parties.
Bringing products closer together does not represent a move toward to selling suites, said product manager Brian Breton. "We are committed to continuing to offer separate products," Breton said, though he did note that the company is looking into suite-licensing options. This distinction is worth making because security suites aren't necessarily popular with companies, which prefer to pick and choose the best products for each application.
ZDNet UK's Peter Judge reported from San Francisco.