* Platform enables customer-centric identity architectures and provides enhancements designed to support cloud computing and subscriber-based services
In the last issue I lamented about the wealth of conferences and trade shows that are identity related. Two others I missed while I was traveling in Europe were Denver’s Gluecon and the Smart Card Alliance Annual Meeting.
At GlueCon, UnboundID announced the release of Version 2.2 of its Directory Services platform, which includes the UnboundID Directory Server, the UnboundID Directory Proxy Server and the UnboundID Synchronization Server. The company says the new platform enables customer-centric identity architectures and provides enhancements designed to support cloud computing and subscriber-based services, including large-scale business-to-consumer applications.
You may remember (see “Ex-Sun ID wizards unveil the UnboundID Directory Server”) that UnboundID was founded by refugees from Sun’s Identity Services group before the Oracle acquisition of Sun. These are guys who know their stuff, but were stifled in the corporate world of Sun Microsystems. This new version of their platform shows the creative thinking that Sun let escape.
Highlighting the new features in version 2.2 are:
* LDAP Join — an industry first, this feature allows a directory server to act like a database by gathering multiple pieces of identity data through a single search. In addition, it enables developers to use the directory server with many more applications that previously only used a database.
* Rate Limiting — enables service providers to map the number, types and rates of specific operations performed within the directory to the bandwidth and service-level agreements they have in place with individual customers. As a result, better service provisioning can be delivered for subscriber-based offerings.
* Replication Traffic Compression — reduces the data footprint sent between different directory environments, improving the efficiency of data movement during replication. This helps service providers with globally distributed data sets and network connectivity constraints to better manage service delivery in various regions.
Good stuff for both the enterprise and the cloud-based service provider. Find out more at their Web site.
At the Smart Card Alliance Annual Meeting, Mike O’Neil, executive director of the North American Security Products Organization (NASPO), pointed out that the commonly used base breeder documents (those documents used to establish identity) — such as birth certificates, driver’s licenses and Social Security cards — were never designed to be identity documents and are easily falsified. Under the recommendations of ANSI (the American National Standards Institute), NASPO is developing a new identity verification standard and process that could be used to establish more trusted identities for individuals. This transcends the smart card market and could become the basis of validated identity data. We’ll keep an eye open for more on this.
We’ve run out of space, and there’s so much more to tell you. Come back next time and I’ll try to catch up!
