ID management software gathers steam

Getting Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's 5,000 students and faculty securely tied into central resources was once a monumental administrative task - but not anymore.

The Baltimore school has built a self-service Web portal from which users in multiple locations can log on, manage their passwords and view information accessible only by them. To get the users up-to-speed, the IT department distributed an e-mail detailing how to use the self-service site, which involved inputting a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) password once. From there, the rest was self-explanatory.

"If I can get my help desk calls down for silly stuff like password reset and provide just one password for Active Directory and LDAP, that's ROI enough for me," says Ross McKenzie, director of IS at the school.

McKenzie, by using NetIQ's VigilEnt Password Manager software, took advantage of the recent wave of products promising to ease identity management across corporate networks by automating the process. Vendors ranging from management giants such as Computer Associates and IBM Tivoli to security start-ups such as Netegrity and Thor Technologies brought identity management into their product portfolios. HP's OpenView software division is expected to announce the company's foray into identity management at its annual users' conference next month.

For years, network managers manually maintained user identities across their networks. The process involves provisioning users, assigning resource access rights, managing passwords and, ultimately, deprovisioning users, among other tasks.

Today, identity management software promises to automate the process of time-intensive tasks such as setting up user groups, access rules and workflow rights by using myriad technologies including directories, single sign-on, authentication and certification.

The goal is to let network executives know who is logged on, regardless of the end user's location or type of client being used, and to ensure that only authorized users have access to specific resources. Typically, network managers must define roles for the specific users and groups of users, and also incorporate approval processes in the software. The software then uses tools such as XML to enable communications among platforms, and perform authorization and authentication.

Network executives such as Bill Kannberg seem satisfied that the software can lessen their workload and increase operational efficiencies.