Regular readers will know that I'm a big fan of context-based authentication (see, for example, Putting Context in Identity). I applauded Oracle last year on its acquisition of Bharosa because Bharosa provided one of the first context-aware authentication services. I've been eager for the first release of the product (formerly Bharosa Tracker) under the Oracle aegis with true Oracle Identity integration. That happened last month.

Oracle announced Oracle Adaptive Access Manager (OAAM) at OpenWorld last month but evidently the story I wrote about those announcements (Oracle puts identity front and center at Oracle OpenWorld) wasn’t enthusiastic enough for Amit Jasuja. Jasuja, who is Oracle’s VP, Product Development, Identity Management was on the phone last week to be sure I was fully aware of what Oracle had done.

What it has is to keep the best parts of Bharosa Tracker (context-based authentication, auto-learning tools, extensive rules engine, etc.) and make it better. The improvements include:

* Enhanced Auto Learning - new statistical evaluation techniques that security administrators can use to establish sophisticated policies designed to thwart fraud in real-time by detecting usage anomalies and fraud patterns.
* Investigation Management - a new framework and tools providing flexibility for investigators and customer service representatives to review service logs for each user and to more easily investigate and analyze relationships to rapidly identify and prevent complex attacks.
* Transaction Administration - a new feature that enables security policy administrators to more easily examine and evaluate transactional entities and define risk levels for transactions to proactively prevent fraud.
* Globalization Support - expanded language support makes it easier for organizations to deploy the software throughout their global enterprise.

One of the more amazing things, though, is what wasn’t added – while OAAM easily integrates with other Oracle Fusion middleware components (such as out-of-the-box integration with Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher), it is sold as a standalone product. It will integrate with other SQL databases, provisioning tools, etc. I consider that a real sign of confidence by Oracle – it is confident that its users and clients will see the benefit of a full Oracle ID Suite buy so there’s no need to force them into it. There’s a reason why Oracle is both the leader and the leading innovator in identity management today and products like OAAM (and people like Jasuja) are the proof.

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