*Novell Identity Assurance package tweaked for the federal government
I may have found something for you to do with that “everybody-says-it’s-obsolete” NetWare server. It will help if the abbreviations/acronyms “HSPD-12” and “FIPS-201” mean something to you, but I’ll explain and perhaps you’ll see an application for your environment.
Homeland Security/Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12) is a mandate from the U.S. federal government. What it mandates is a common identification standard for federal employees and contractors and, in essence, just about anyone having business within a federal building. The mandate is being implemented by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as Federal Information Processing Standard 201 (FIPS-201). What it all boils down to is a convergence of physical identity (think proximity card/smart card building access) with logical identity (network access, application authentication, eDirectory stuff).
Last week, during the Digital ID World conference, Novell announced that it had expanded its Identity Assurance package for the federal government, adding a critical identity management foundation to help federal agencies better meet the requirements of HSPD-12.
Key enhancements to the package include automating user and security credential provisioning which would help to streamline the processes associated with the use of Personal Identification Verification (PIV) cards. PIV cards are the identity cards that FIPS-201 specifies for use in entry to federal installations and buildings.
What it all boils down to is that Novell Identity Manager (its identity provisioning system based on eDirectory) will interoperate with card-based systems (such as ActivIdentity’s Smart Card) to enable end-to-end lifecycle management of both physical and logical identity-based authentication and authorization systems.
And it all runs from Novell Identity Manager, which runs on top of eDirectory 8.7.3 (or later) which, in turn, can run on top of NetWare 6.5. That’s the really good news.So not only can you run the award winning Novell Identity Manager but you can doubly protect the identity data with eDirectory and the extremely secure and robust NetWare operating system. Sounds like a winning plan all-around, even if you aren’t running a government agency but just need to make sure your facility is secure.
