Reverse Query Engine, Compliance Dictionary fall into 'Why didn't I think of that?' category
Frequently I read about or hear about a new product, service or application and say to myself, “What were they thinking?” But, just occasionally, I’ll say, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
Frequently I read about or hear about a new product, service or application and say to myself (or, sometimes, to you — see “SCIMing the provisioning landscape“), “What were they thinking?” But, just occasionally, I’ll say, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
It was just such an aha! moment when I recently heard from Gerry Gebel (see “Burton Group identity/privacy expert jumping to security firm”) that his firm, Axiomatics, had just introduced of Axiomatics Reverse Query (ARQ). As Gerry explained it: “If you think about the typical XACML request/response scenario, you can only ask yes or no questions: Can Alice update this parts list document? With the reverse query engine, you can address scenarios such as, What documents can Alice update in the order inventory database?”
That’s brilliant!
As the company puts it:
“Axiomatics Reverse Query combines Axiomatics’ Policy Decision Point (PDP) with new technology from Axiomatics’ R&D labs. With ARQ, it becomes possible to formulate queries such as List the resources User Alice can edit or List the records the manager can view. ARQ completes Axiomatics’ existing family of products, the Axiomatics Policy Server (APS), the .Net Policy Decision Point (.Net PDP) and the Policy Auditor (APA). ARQ helps extend externalized access control to other families of products such as databases, web portals, and graphical user interfaces.
“ARQ provides near‐instant access control decisions for millions or billions of records, enabling externalized access control for applications such as databases or content management systems. ARQ provides finer‐grained access control than was previously possible with legacy products or access control that was embedded within the application. This helps bring better visibility and manageability into enterprise data access, making it easier to ensure that access control policies meet with business rules and legal regulations.”
Check the entire family of Axiomatics products to see if they can relieve some of your pressure points.
Another useful little service I recently learned about is the Compliance Dictionary. This is, as you might gather, a dictionary of terms used in the compliance area of IdM/Security. It’s a simple search engine, but one with multiple avenues of access. It’s best use is so that two (or more) parties can each use a term with an agreed meaning without having to spend days defining what it is they’re saying. Nifty.
