* Ping ID releases 'identity federation server for simplified federation'
When you read this, I’ll be wondering the halls of the Moscone Center in San Francisco, taking in what’s fast becoming a very important event for identity and access management people – the RSA Conference. I’ll probably spend weeks telling you about all the news and information I picked up at the conference, but there was some news last week that was released (perhaps) in anticipation of the RSA show.
Ping Identity’s President and CEO, Andre Durand, it seems to me, has always cared more about the technology than about the marketing opportunities. I even find it hard to think of Ping’s Eric Norlin as a “marketing weasel,” although he carries the title of senior vice president of corporate marketing. So it was a pleasure to chat with Norlin last week about the company’s latest move.
This turned out to be the release of PingFederate v2.0, which Ping ID describes as “…an advanced identity federation server for simplified federation.” Think about that phrase for a moment.
But the kicker came when we got to talking about pricing. You can download the software for free – or send Ping a note and it’ll ship it out to you on CD. You can install it on as many servers as you want. There are no limits to the number of applications, connections or users that can be integrated.
Use of the server, as well as future updates and upgrades, is completely free for up to 100,000 transactions. A “transaction” is defined as anytime the server receives or generates an authorization token. Norlin thinks that the average organization would take about a year to use 100,000 transactions although this could range from a few months for the biggest enterprises, to a few years for the smallest. After that, you can, essentially, subscribe to an annual service, that includes a million transactions and all updates for about $30,000, or negotiate a site license for unlimited usage.https://www.pingidentity.com/products/listDownloads.action). Or drop Norlin a note (at the very inaptly named account, sales@pingidentity.com) and he’ll personally mail you a copy. I like that attitude in a marketing person.
Ping ID is hoping that, after a year of using the service, which is based on the SAML protocol and is fully interoperable with any other SAML implementation, that you’ll jump at the chance to sign up for paid licenses. Evidently, the board of directors agrees, since Durand is still running the company and Norlin is still smiling. You can get your copy, and decide for yourself, at the Ping ID Web site (
EXTRA TIP: Next Tuesday, Feb. 22, Ping is hosting a webinar entitled “Ensuring Compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm-Leach-Bliley and HIPAA,” which should be important to many of you. It’ll start at 9 a.m. Mountain Standard Time and features Linda Elliott, Vice President of Business Solutions at Ping. She’ll take questions at the end of the session. Register at https://www.pingidentity.com/events/register.action?id=4
