NCipher buys provisioning pioneer; ActivCard unveils new company name

This issue I want to catch up on the comings and goings – the adds, modifies and deletes, if you will – in the identity niche of the computing industry.

Early last month, U.K. security vendor nCipher acquired provisioning pioneer Abridean, the five-year old identity management software provider originally headquartered in Nova Scotia and most recently located in Chicago.

I did pen an electronic book for Abridean, “The Administrator Shortcut Guide to User Management and Provisioning,” which you can access for free at the Abridean e-books site.

The press release announcing the acquisition is enlightening in that it lays out (probably because of U.K. laws) the reasoning behind the move:

“The technology of encryption and decryption has been the focus of nCipher’s expertise for many years, but in order to capture the broader market opportunity it must be coupled with the technology for identifying and managing those who are the right users in the first place. For this reason, nCipher proposes to take the strategic step of acquiring Abridean.” That makes sense to me.

Abridean is simply the latest in a long line of provisioning vendors to go the acquisition route. Business Layers, Waveset, Access360, Oblix (and probably others I just don’t remember) went that way before. As electronic provisioning becomes just another expected part of the infrastructure we have to wonder how long the remaining “pure play” provisioning vendors (Thor Technologies, Courion, mTech) can hold out.

In other news, ActivCard announced this week that it is changing its name. You may remember that the Fremont, Calif., vendor best known for its secure access tokens recently acquired Protocom Technologies, a leader in the single sign-on space. Like many companies that have grown to encompass more than their initial product (which was, indeed, an “active” card – a proximity token device), ActivCard has decided to re-brand itself to better encapsulate its current business. So, from now on, it will be known as ActivIdentity.

Along with the name change comes a new description of the organization, one designed to enable a person to have a single and secure electronic identity that allows access to computer systems anywhere, anytime regardless of differing systems’ security requirements and authentication challenges. That’s a lofty, but a laudable goal.

I’m sure there are other changes I’ve overlooked, but I’ll try to bring you up to speed on them as they’re pointed out to me.