This week is the annual RSA Conference in San Francisco and there are lots of announcements by the participants. We covered one of the host's announcements last time - RSA's Identity Assurance platform. Today we're taking a closer look at a second announcement by RSA, Version 7.1 of RSA Authentication Manager, which supports Identity Assurance.

Significant new functionality is included in RSA Authentication Manager 7.1 to provide users with seamless authentication experiences which continue RSA’s well-known security model, but which also allow support for new business models so that partners and customers can strike the perfect balance between risk, cost and convenience. Among the new offerings in this release are:

* Business continuity - This new offering in Version 7.1 allows RSA customers to temporarily expand a server license for a period of time, to meet an influx of a large number of remote access users. This could occur during a business disruption or emergency, when many employees may have to work from remote locations for an indeterminate length of time. A Self-Service module facilitates around-the-clock ‘on the fly’ deployments, so that users can register, request and receive credentials without overwhelming the IT help desk. The business continuity feature complements what many VPN vendors offer, a cost-effective “bursty access” method which gives the customer the ability to accommodate large numbers of additional users quickly and without requiring a permanent license.

* Extended authentication methods – Two new methods are introduced to allow flexible deployment and lower management costs: On-demand Authenticator, which delivers token codes either via short service message (SMS) e-mail, which requires no physical token to be assigned, or software to be installed; and Dynamic Seed Provisioning, which uses the RSA-invented Cryptographic token key initiation protocol (CT-KIP) to enable the more rapid deployment and set-up of software tokens. This allows the seeding and commissioning of a software token without sending the seed file over the network.

* New operating efficiencies – New, or improved, in this version are: native LDAP support, Microsoft management console Support, Web-based management, delegated administration, and RSA Credential Manager.

Dave Kearns is a consultant and editor of IdM, the Journal of Identity Management.