Identity Managment Platform

In order to effectively compete in today's business environment, companies are increasing the number of users -- customers, employees, partners and suppliers -- that are allowed to access information both remotely and within the boundaries of the organization. With more users, more resources, more data and more change to manage than ever before, today's online environment has never been more complex.

As IT is challenged to do more with fewer resources, managing user identities and their access to resources throughout the identity lifecycle is even more difficult. Typical IT environments have many local administrators using manual processes to implement user changes across multiple systems and applications. As identity management grows more costly, it can inhibit the development and deployment of new business initiatives. That's one reason so many organizations are turning to directory architectures to simplify technology infrastructures for managing users' identities and their access privileges.

Directories based on open standards have been widely adopted by many organizations as simple, cost-effective tools for storing basic organizational and personal data for employees. Now, their capabilities for organizing, storing and securing information easily and efficiently are making directories increasingly popular for the more formidable challenge of managing the online identities of employees, partners and customers.

They are proving ideal for:

• storing entitlement information for both Web and non-Web applications
• serving as authoritative sources for constantly changing user profiles
• providing the underlying identity repository for critical enterprise applications

The challenge for IT is that within these strategic directory initiatives there is a wide variety of technologies, architectures, and methodologies being used by different organizations in order to meet their departmental objectives. Directory-driven organizations inevitably find themselves struggling with a number of tricky issues as a result.
 

• Data Inconsistency. User identities are typically stored in a combination of directories, databases and application data stores. So if a user has a change of address or job title, his or her information may be updated in the repository associated with that change-but not everywhere else, when in fact the changes should be reflected across the enterprise.
• Identity Integration. Multiple data repositories mean multiple user identities that are stored, administered and secured locally. This can make it virtually impossible to deploy a comprehensive identity management policy or to manage identity data efficiently.
• Directory Integration. Organizations with directories from different vendors (such as Microsoft® Active Directory®, Novell® eDirectoryT and Sun ONET Directory Server, for example) have to deal with different technologies, architectures and administrative interfaces for accessing data and identifying users.
• Authentication and security. The amount of business critical data being distributed across networks is continually growing. To share it securely requires a coherent, global identity management policy, which is difficult to achieve without a central point of administration for identity management.

Overcoming these challenges to run a competitive, profitable business requires entirely new ways of managing the myriad of relationships is essential to success. Central to this success is the concept of enterprise identity management. Simply put, identity management is the comprehensive management and administration of user permissions, privileges and individual profile data required to bring about the real-time enterprise.

Caveo's ACCESSID solution leverages a secure identity management backbone that's built upon unique, flexible and non-invasive services available only from Caveo. These services enable rapid implementation and, once deployed, help organizations easily manage access privileges and identity profile information throughout the enterprise-delivering better security, lower IT operational costs, a higher quality of service and a rapid return on investment in the process.
To effectively manage internal users as well as an increasing number of customers and partners through the Internet, Caveo provides all the interfaces, services and solutions today's enterprise needs for secure identity management including:

• ACCESSID Password Manager (a self-service password management solution)
• ACCESSID Controller (access and privacy control, single sign-on and auditing)
• ACCESSID Broker (sharing user authentication and attribute informationbetween trusted Web services applications)
• ACCESSID Master (directory, directory integration and workflow)

More efficient operations at lower costs

Caveo's approach to identity management allows routine yet complex identity management processes to be automated. This includes all aspects related to the ongoing management of identities: assigning, managing and revoking rights and access privileges to Web-based and Enterprise resources, managing an accurate and consistent picture of identity profile information across enterprise applications, and providing a high quality of service to those individuals conducting business with your company.

In addition, ACCESSID solutions enable routine tasks to be delegated to managers in other departments and organizations and to end users themselves - without sacrificing central authority over these activities. The ability to automate, delegate and provide self-service significantly speeds the processes associated with the traditionally IT-centric activities of provisioning, password management, directory management and profile management - thereby dramatically reducing costs, providing a more secure environment and increasing competitiveness through partner and customer retention.

Improved internal and remote access security

In an age of information security audits, internal and external security threats and federal privacy mandates, protecting sensitive enterprise resources and data is more important than ever; unfortunately, as the modern day computing environment grows ever more complex and dynamic, managing risk is also more challenging than ever. ACCESSID solutions address this by consistently applying and enforcing enterprise security policies to user identity management.

ACCESSID solutions provide complete visibility into access privileges, giving you control and up to the minute insight into who has access to what resources and information throughout the enterprise-and it automatically detects and reacts to potential risks. Just as important as ensuring that only those users have access to the systems and applications they need to conduct business with your enterprise is the need to effectively and efficiently turn this access off when appropriate. Only with ACCESSID is this capability realized across Web-based, client-server and legacy systems ensuring that when a relationship is terminated with your organization, it is truly terminated.

Better, faster service

The real-time enterprise can't wait weeks or even days for users to get access to the resources they need to do their jobs - or for administrators to keep critical customer data up-to-date for use by key business applications. In the best case, employee productivity suffers. In the worst case, partner and customer retention is at stake, potentially affecting top-line revenue generating activities. Using automation, delegation and self-service, ACCESSID solutions allow new relationships to be productive more quickly: bringing new users onboard immediately, meeting their changing needs more quickly and affecting changes to identity data across the enterprise more efficiently and accurately. This ends the frustration of waiting for access privileges and changes to profile data to become effective or for changes such as password resets to be made easily and cost-effectively.