Novell has launched a compliance platform to challenge its competitors in the identity management space, including Oracle and IBM. The platform pulls together a number of Novell products, including Novell Identity Manager and Novell Sentinel. With this enterprise-class solution, Novell goes head-to-head with IBM, Sun Microsystems, Oracle and others.
Novell is looking to take on its rivals in the identity and security
management space with a new platform of prepackaged products and integration
resources designed to help organizations monitor compliance.
The company's approach can be conceived of as a play against its rivals in
the identity management and user provisioning markets, including
Sun
Microsystems, IBM,
Oracle and CA. Novell's Compliance Management Platform is its answer to the
identity management challenges facing organizations, and lets the company
demonstrate that it has an enterprise-class solution.
According to officials at Novell, the Compliance Management Platform
includes the latest versions of Novell's identity and security management
products, including Novell Identity Manager 3.6 for user provisioning,
role-based access control and password management; Novell Sentinel 6.1 for
security and event monitoring; and Novell Access Manager 3.0 for Web access
management.
Also included is Analyzer for Novell Identity Manager 1.0, a data analysis
tool for managing and governing data across disparate sources. The platform is
rounded out by the Identity Manager Resource Kit 1.2, an out-of-the-box set of
provisioning policies, documentation, success practices and guides designed to
reduce implementation costs and speed the deployment of business solutions.
"Vendors such as CA, Sun,
Oracle,
and IBM have all invested in technologies
such as role management, identity risk analytics, SIEM (security information
event management), activity monitoring and access certification tools,"
said Lori Rowland, an analyst with the Burton Group. "Novell's Compliance
Management Platform allows Novell to compete head to head with these vendors'
offerings."
According to Jim Ebzery, senior vice president and general manager of
Identity and Security Management at Novell, there are two key areas where the
compliance platform helps Novell compete in the market.
"First and foremost, Novell has undertaken the efforts to integrate the
products and not force customers [to deal] with the task of working with
various, sometimes conflicting features within acquired products...[because]
heavy customization of various products results in more difficult
administration and a greater degree of difficulty when attempting to implement
features of future versions," Ebzery said. "Thus Novell can deliver a
lower total cost of ownership.
"Secondly, the inclusion of tools such as Analyzer allows organizations
to significantly reduce deployment efforts by streamlining the analysis of
identity data in disparate systems and establishing consistency as new identity
stores are incorporated into the identity fabric of the enterprise,"
Ebzery continued. "The Identity Manager Resource Kit and Identity Tracking
Solution Pack allows customers to take advantage of Novell's historical
experiences of deploying identity and security solutions with out-of-the-box
policies, deployment guidelines and best practices."
Rowland called Novell's move a significant announcement for the company.
"This gives Novell a competitive differentiator
against some vendors in the identity management space," Rowland said.
"More importantly, it gives Novell's customers more options as they build
out technologies to support their governance and compliance mandates."
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