Oracle(R) Identity and Access Management Suite Enables Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University to Increase Security and Streamline Provisioning

Components of Oracle Fusion Middleware Help Aviation and Aerospace University Execute Near Real-Time Updates for Students, Alumni and Faculty.

Oracle today announced that Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world leader in aviation and aerospace education, is using Oracle(r) Identity and Access Management Suite as the foundation for its identity management infrastructure. Oracle’s feature-rich software is delivering business value by helping Embry-Riddle improve customer service, implement process improvements and manage more than 60,000 accounts providing faculty, staff, affiliates, students, alumni and applicants secure access to highly sensitive data and applications.
Prior to implementing Oracle Identity Management, Embry-Riddle faced a number of challenges common to higher education institutions today, including decentralization of IT resources, siloed security and privacy policies, lack of an enterprise wide system to track employee access to sensitive data, constant changes in user roles and diverse users with multiple affiliations. To overcome these challenges, Embry-Riddle teamed with Mycroft to design an enterprise-wide identity management infrastructure. After an exhaustive evaluation process, Embry-Riddle selected Oracle Identity and Access Management Suite to serve as the foundation of its identity management infrastructure. Once the university selected Oracle Identity and Access Management Suite, it took less than seven months to implement the software throughout the entire organization.

Using Oracle Identity Manager, a component of the Oracle Identity and Access Management Suite, Embry-Riddle can enforce tighter, automated access and management controls around its sensitive data and applications including the Oracle E-Business Suite, its Datatel student information system and Microsoft Exchange. The university is using Oracle Identity Manager to provision to multiple LDAP directories, including Microsoft Active Directory, Novell eDirectory and Oracle Internet Directory. Additionally, Oracle Identity Manager enabled the university to create a single identity for all users and to more rapidly and automatically provision and deprovision access privileges and requirements as an individual’s role changes. Previously Embry-Riddle used a manual or batch process to implement nearly 2,000 changes daily, which typically took 24 to 26 hours to complete and resulted in a delay in delivering updates to students. With the use of Oracle Identity Manager, the university can now accomplish this same task in less than 30 minutes and provide near real-time updates to its constituents.

“As a university, data security and privacy are of paramount concern to us,” said Cindy Bixler, chief information officer, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. “With its hot-pluggable architecture, Oracle Identity and Access Management Suite has delivered both business and IT benefits by allowing us to automate and centralize our security processes across heterogeneous systems, while enhancing overall security and improving the user experience for our internal and external constituents.”

A Phased Approach to Identity and Access Management
During the next phase of its rollout of a comprehensive identity management strategy, Embry-Riddle plans to implement Oracle Access Manager, another component of the suite, to improve customer service and deliver secure access to its data and systems across its heterogeneous environment. The software will provide a centralized and automated single sign-on system for managing who has access to specific information systems and applications throughout Embry-Riddle’s IT infrastructure. As a result, users will be able to log into the system once and gain access to a broader range of resources, thus expanding the single sign-on capabilities beyond those offered today with their Oracle Single Sign-On system and further improving security and usability.

Additionally, Embry-Riddle plans to implement delegated administration capabilities to automate the entire process of requesting and granting access to applications. By implementing the delegated administration capabilities of the Oracle Identity and Access Management Suite, Embry-Riddle’s data owners can directly manage who gets access to applications without having to rely on the organization’s administrative IT staff to manage these functions.

Oracle Partner Helps University Create the Identity Foundation
Embry-Riddle worked with Mycroft, a member of the Oracle PartnerNetwork, to implement Oracle Identity and Access Management Suite. Utilizing the suite’s standards-based architecture, Mycroft deployed an integrated, flexible and automated identity and access management solution that meets Embry-Riddle’s needs today and provides a foundation for its future requirements.

“Working closely with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, we were able to design and deploy an identity and access management strategy, based on Oracle’s leading software, that provides secure access to mission critical resources and applications,” said Elizabeth Butwin Mann, executive vice president, Mycroft. “We are pleased to help the university create a security vision and successfully execute upon that vision.”

Expanding the Oracle Footprint
In addition to its use of Oracle Identity and Access Management Suite with the Oracle E-Business Suite, the University is also using Oracle Application Server and Oracle Portal - components of Oracle Fusion Middleware - Oracle Database on Linux and Oracle Real Application Clusters.

About Oracle Identity Management
Serving as the security backbone for Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Identity Management helps customers and partners decrease security threats across diverse IT environments while helping address governance, risk and compliance needs. Oracle Identity Management was the fastest growing suite of Identity Management products in 2006, based on total software revenues worldwide. Oracle Identity Management’s support of industry standards such as WS*, XACML, SAML and SPML helps enable customers and partners to more easily integrate applications with the framework. The family of best-in-class software includes Oracle Identity Manager, Oracle Access Manager, Oracle Adaptive Access Manager, Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Suite, Oracle Identity Federation, Oracle Virtual Directory, Oracle Internet Directory, Oracle Management Pack for Identity Management and Oracle Web Services Manager; all of which can be used in its entirety or as individual components. To learn more, visit http://www.oracle.com/identity.

About Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. The university educates more than 34,000 students annually in undergraduate and graduate programs at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Worldwide Campus at more than 130 centers in the United States, Europe, Canada, and the Middle East, and through online learning. For more information, visit http://www.embryriddle.edu.

About Mycroft
Mycroft is an Identity Management and Application Security Services firm and an active member of the Oracle PartnerNetwork. For more information about Mycroft, visit http://www.mycroftinc.com.

About Oracle
Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world’s largest enterprise software company. For more information about Oracle, visit our Web site at http://www.oracle.com.