IBM's WebSphere software, for users of IBM WebSphere Application Server Version 5, will help developers manage high-volume business transactions and integrate key business applications in a secure environment, while IBM's Tivoli software for those using IBM Tivoli Access Manager, will enable the secure interaction of business applications, the company said.
"The importance of Web services is becoming more evident because it offers a much easier way for taking business applications and exposing them on the Internet. But if a company is going to take those services outside of the firewall, security is highly important; and security has been the main inhibitor to growth in the Web services market," said IBM spokesman Steve Eisenstadt.
IBM will launch the WebSphere software in the fourth quarter and the Tivoli software in "early" 2003, Eisenstadt said.
The software will support industry standards for Web services security, including the WS-Security specification, IBM said.
WS-Security provides a foundation for Web services security by defining a set of Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) extensions and describes how to exchange secure and signed messages in a Web-services environment.
The WS-Security specification was first published in April as part of a working partnership among IBM, Microsoft and VeriSign, and is currently being considered by an Organization for the Advancement of Structure Information Standards specification committee.
IBM also plans to support new federated identity management capabilities in its WebSphere and Tivoli software so that users of the resulting Web services and enterprise applications will be able to share identity information across multiple networks, Eisenstadt said.
Businesses will be able to control access to Web services applications based on a user's ID with IBM's planned, fine-grained authorization for SOAP transactions in Web services environments, the company said.
IBM believes it is the first company to offer enterprises the capability to build secure Web services applications that also use open standards and run on a variety of platforms, Eisenstadt said.
In June, Microsoft announced that it will release software next year, code-named TrustBridge, that will allow companies using the Windows operating system to share user identities across business boundaries, but Eisenstadt characterized the Microsoft software as being "much more superficial" than what IBM will be offering.
The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.
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