Quest Software, which has been building a fortress of identity management tools, Tuesday said it will ship by the end of the month the last piece of its platform-independent enterprise single sign-on suite.  

Quest Enterprise Single Sign-on (QESSO) is aimed at simplifying log-on to any network or Web-based application via Windows desktops. The company made the announcement at this week's RSA Conference. Quest already offers SSO to applications and services via Linux, Java and Unix desktops through a series of its Vintela products.

The Quest software is the result of an OEM deal in February with Evidian to license its enterprise SSO technology, and Quest's acquisition of PassGo and its Webthority product for Web application SSO.

Quest's goal is to give users SSO regardless of the platform they are running on their desktop.

The Quest SSO software relies on Active Directory as a centralized credential store for log-on information. From there, administrators can configure the QESSO agents at each desktop to hold a copy of the user's credential database, which can be accessed when needed to sign on to an application. Administrators can configure the SSO agent to clear the encrypted credential cache each time the user logs out.

Quest is left now to fill only a gap in its SSO story around identity federation, which lets users share credentials across network boundaries.

"We want to get to the point where we have a complete SSO product that covers Web, enterprise and federation," says Jackson Shaw, senior director of product management for Quest.

Quest only provides federated SSO on the Windows side, but will add other platforms in the near future, Shaw says. He also says the company will tackle federation based on the Security Assertion Markup Language.

Shaw says Quest is likely to see competition from Passlogix and IBM, which recently acquired Ecentuate.  

Quest Enterprise SSO is slated for general availability at the end of April and is priced (for North American companies) for basic SSO functionality beginning at $40 per managed seat for 5,000 users or more.

Whitepapers

• Selecting Effective Virtual Directories
• Best Practices for HP Servers and HP Enterprise Virtual Array in a Microsoft Exchange
• Compliance, Protection, Recovery: A Layered Approach to Laptop Security
• Endpoint Security: Data Protection for IT, Freedom for Laptop Users
• IT Departments on Data Security: A Research Concepts Survey
• Laptop Security Tool Helps Allina Hospitals Track 97% of IT Assets

View more SOFTWARE whitepapers

Webcasts

• Managing the End User Experience-A Real World Example of Success
• Lowering the Cost of Email Archives
• Google Webcast: Why archive email? Top challenges and best practices
• High Availability for SQL Server 2005 Using Array-Based Replication and Host-Based Mirroring Technologies
• Technical Overview of Exchange Server 2007 with HP Servers and Storage
• Bringing Order and Security to your Mobile Workforce: Corporate Mobility Policy and Device Management On-Demand

View more SOFTWARE webcasts

Special Reports

• Application Performance Management Executive Guide
• Executive Guide: Building a Service Oriented Architecture
• IT Buyers Guide To: Collaboration

View more SOFTWARE special reports