DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /    ( Table of Contents )

Systems/Enterprise:

WAVESET ENVISIONS IDENTITY GRID

Waveset, a leading provider of innovative identity management solutions, unveiled its concept of the Identity Grid, a new management approach that will be critical to the next wave of digital computing. The Identity Grid radically simplifies the definition and usage of "people data" or identity data that distinguishes people and defines their rights and relationships to enterprise processes, services and resources. By transparently organizing an enterprise's disparate identity-data stores and identity-management technologies into a cohesive framework, the Identity Grid enables enterprises to conduct business securely and expeditiously across all types of computing infrastructures and application environments.

The Identity Grid depends on the concept of "virtualization," in which disparate Grid resources appear and function as a single entity. The virtualization technology that makes the Identity Grid work is federated (or distributed) management, an approach that assembles distributed identity data into a single, virtual identity view representing an individual's all- inclusive attributes and information-access privileges.

In 1999, Waveset pioneered the first software for virtual identity management. Earlier this year, the company announced the industry's first federated management solution with virtualization capabilities, enabling identity data to function across the Grid in a coordinated, reliable and scalable manner. Waveset continues to build its competitive advantage in supporting the Identity Grid through ongoing product development, partner integration, and a focus on automating the processes associated with identity management.

"Like many large enterprises, we recognize that many of the components of an Identity Grid were requirements in our organization," said Rick Perry, director of enterprise operations and security at The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company. "Waveset is defining a paradigm by which its products -- and the products of other vendors -- can be integrated to provide an effective and coordinated identity environment."

How An Identity Grid Works

An Identity Grid manages the flow and consumption of identity data across enterprises. It creates a coordinated network of services for accessing, transporting, sharing and managing identity data across and between organizations and applications, linking identity suppliers, consumers, modifiers, conveyers and managers. Identity Grid components include any subsystem, network, application or repository that utilizes identity information. Waveset defines the Identity Grid as being composed of three layers, as follows:

• Data Stores: data repositories such as relational databases, directories and flat files. These repositories include identity stores that are used by ERP, HR, CRM and other enterprise applications (as offered by PeopleSoft, SAP and Siebel, among other vendors).
• Transaction Services: govern the operation of identity data, including meta-directory services; data transformation services and the services associated with authorization and authentication (single sign-on, biometrics, digital certificates and so on). These services (as offered by BEA, Entrust, IBM, Netegrity, Novell, Oblix, Oracle, RSA and Sun, among other vendors) provide the access and transfer mechanisms for the efficient exchange of identity information among data repositories, applications and people.
• Management Services: manage the effectiveness of identity data, including provisioning, directory management, password management, policy management and identity audit. These services (as offered by IBM, Novell, Sun and Waveset, among other vendors) secure the identity Grid and make sure that only the right people get access to the right data.

"Businesses will initially use Identity Grids internally, to simplify identity management across departments, applications and preferred customers and partners," said Mark McClain, president and founder of Waveset. "Then, as their confidence and investment in Identity Grid infrastructures grow, they will extend their Grids to encompass the processes that affect a broader base of customers and partners. Ultimately, it is our belief that the business world will be powered by a collection of secure, cooperating Identity Grids linking customer, company and industry interests."