IBM Rolls Out Federated ID-Management SoftwareIBM Rolls Out Federated ID-Management Software

IBM's Tivoli division unveiled federated identity-management and information-access software on Monday that's designed to improve communications among business partners. The IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager is designed to let a user log on to an Internet computer system or network and then use that connection to access information or systems run by a business partner, service provider, or other affiliated company. For example, an employee could sign on to his company's computer network and have that network provide the security authentication necessary when that user tries to access health-care insurance information on an insurer's site or order parts from a supplier's site.

Extending a single-sign-on approach from inside a company to external organizations could facilitate interactions among business partners, and should help companies already doing identity-based transactions, the company says. By using and enforcing a variety of security standards, it also could help reduce exposure for companies seeking to comply with new regulatory requirements to protect certain kinds of data.

The software assumes an identity provider and a security provider. Some companies will take on both roles, confirming that a user signing on to the network is who they claim to be and then providing secure authentication when that user travels over the Internet to the sites of partners. Some businesses are likely to contract out the security part to a service provider, IBM says. A common way to share identities between providers means customers won't have to replicate or stage business processes for their security providers, IBM says.

Identity management is a market that's poised to take off in the next year or two, but few companies are able to deploy such software today without help, says Jon Oltsik, an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. "So IBM uses [Federated Identity Manager] to get through the door with customers," he says, "and sets up IBM Global Services to make them ready."