Oracle’s Passlogix Acquisition Boosts Identity Management, Security

Oracle will buy single sign-on vendor Passlogix to boost its security portfolio, the company said Oct. 5.

Expected to close by the end of this year, the financial terms were not disclosed.

“Driven by regulatory mandates, organizations are being pressured to provide stronger authentication mechanisms while reducing the number of passwords required,” Amit Jasuja, an Oracle vice president, said in a statement.

Passlogix products enable single sign-on on a broad range of applications including client-server, mainframe and Web-based applications. The products are used across multiple industries, including financial services, government and retail.

Oracle has been reselling Passlogix as the Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Suite, a component of the Oracle Identity Management Suite, since 2006 as part of an OEM relationship. Passlogic products already integrate with Oracle Identity Manager, Oracle Access Manager and Oracle Internet Directory, said Marc Boroditsky, Passlogix CEO.

Oracle and Passlogix have many of the same customers, said Jasuja.

With the acquisition, Oracle can more tightly mesh the Passlogix technology with its security products, and expand its single sign-on and network authentication capabilities to other platforms, Oracle said.

Customers will have a complete identity management solution that offers simple, yet secure, access to all Oracle applications using strong authentication and enhanced privacy controls, the company wrote in a letter to its customers.

Enterprises are looking for “tight, out-of-the box integration across access management and security components” that provide advanced security, Oracle said.

“Single sign-on requirements are moving from traditional PC-based platforms to mobile devices and the cloud, making paramount the need for a flexible, lightweight, easy-to-deploy solution that can run anywhere and on any platform,” Oracle wrote in a FAQ document that accompanied the announcement.

With Passlogix, Oracle can deliver a comprehensive software stack that spans Web access management, identity administration, entitlements management, fraud prevention, directory services, platform security services, enterprise single sign-on, and strong network authentication, according to Oracle.

The integration will provide enterprises with new capabilities, including strong network authentication that supports a variety of credential types and support for modern architectures and devices, cloud deployment and newer browsers, according to Oracle.

Oracle is positioning itself as a virtual one-stop shop for enterprises. The Sun Microsystems deal gave Oracle the hardware assets required to deliver integrated systems, and with Passlogix, the security component is strengthened. This is not the only security buy this year, as Oracle scooped up Secerno and its database firewall technology in May.

Oracle refused to comment on future product road maps, saying only that they are under review. Business should “continue as usual” for Passlogix partners and customers, said Oracle, and support questions should continue to go to Passlogix.

Current Passlogix employees will join Oracle after the deal closes.

“With the addition of Passlogix, we expect to provide a complete enterprise-scale identity management solution and be able to provide more global reach and support resources to customers,” said Jasuja.