CCR2 interviewed Senior Consultant Neel Kamal of IBM Tivoli Software for this feature.
Enterprise single sign-on can help organizations provide a unified user experience, address compliance issues, and lower help desk and IT administration expenses. Neel Kamal describes the enterprise single sign-on technology IBM acquired with its recent purchase of Encentuate.
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Enterprises increasingly need to safeguard access to key applications to meet regulatory compliance requirements and avoid brand-damaging information breaches. To help, IBM recently announced that it had acquired Encentuate, a leading supplier of enterprise single sign-on (SSO) software. Encentuate has helped more than 80 enterprises worldwide simplify access to corporate assets, strengthen security, track compliance at the user desktop, and reduce operating expenses.
Encentuate’s single sign-on business productivity tools allow users to securely sign-on to a corporate network once, and the software automatically handles subsequent access to most applications – Web, desktop, teletype and mainframe.
Encentuate’s well-regarded products have won numerous SC Magazine awards, and the company was a finalist for the 2008 CODiE awards for Best Identity Management Solution.
Improves security
Encentuate technology automates the end-user application sign-on process by managing passwords for user access to any application with a Windows interface, including terminal and browser-based applications. The software tracks password requests by observing Windows messaging at the application level, so no scripting or application modifications are required.
Encentuate technology also includes advanced features that let you:
- Require the use of multi-factor authentication, such as USB smart card tokens, building access badges, proximity cards, mobile devices, photo badges, fingerprint biometrics and one-time password tokens.
- Create an audit trail of all log-in events.
- Automate walk-off security policies to suspend and terminate inactive sessions.
- Deliver one-time use passwords to traveling employees via the user’s email or a mobile device via short message service (SMS) messaging.
Health care, manufacturing, government and financial services fields in particular have embraced the Encentuate technology as a way to simplify and secure access from shared and remote kiosks, and improve password management. The single sign-on approach can enhance productivity in any business where workers need to access multiple secured applications and servers.
Helps reduce help desk costs
IT may realize significant benefits from Encentuate solutions. Encentuate customers have reported an ability to:
- Reduce help desk costs by 35 to 45 percent by eliminating many password-reset calls
- Improve security by automatically enforcing sign-offs security policies
- Streamline administration by automatically managing user passwords.
Users also win. They don’t have to remember as many different passwords, rules and user IDs, so they can more quickly access the important information they need. For instance, Encentuate customers have reported an 85 percent improvement in time to information. In addition, single sign on reduces the likelihood users will write down, expose or forget needed passwords. The single sign-on technology can even extend to traveling workers using public kiosks.
Enhances Tivoli Access Manager for Enterprise Single Sign-On
Encentuate solutions fit into the IBM Security framework, which helps IBM clients improve security governance, risk management and compliance efforts across five categories:
- People and identity
- Data and information
- Application and process
- Network, server and endpoint
- Physical infrastructure.
Specifically, Encentuate technology can help you protect users (people and identity) and secure applications (application and process).
Going forward, plans call for an updated IBM Tivoli Access Manager for Enterprise Single Sign-On solution based on Encentuate technology. In addition, the IBM software is expected to allow customers to get even more value when it is deployed together with IBM Tivoli Identity Manager, IBM Tivoli Access Manager for e-business, and IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager. The technology will continue to evolve as IBM and Encentuate combine their expertise.
In the coming months, IBM plans to release the new version of Tivoli Access Manager for Enterprise Single Sign-On based on Encentuate technology via the IBM Passport Advantage ordering system. IBM will continue to support existing Tivoli Access Manger Enterprise Single Sign-On customers and help them with upgrade path opportunities to the Encentuate-based software. Similarly, IBM will support Encentuate customers and offer them the opportunity to upgrade to IBM’s Encentuate-based release when it becomes available.
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