Novell Advances Identity Manager with Roles Based Provisioning Capabilities

Roles based provisioning is integrated with Novell Identity Manager, making it easier to tie identity to business processes

WALTHAM, Mass.- Demonstrating its commitment to helping enterprise customers address critical compliance needs, Novell is expanding its identity management solution with a Roles Based Provisioning Module. Stringent privacy policies and continually changing government regulations are driving forces for enterprises to utilize role management as part of their identity infrastructure. By defining roles that control user access to computer applications and organizational resources, the Novell® Identity Manager Roles Based Provisioning Module delivers the industry’s most highly integrated and flexible solution for connecting roles to users.

“The need to demonstrate compliance, mitigate violations and exceptions, and reduce the security exposure associated with inappropriate, excessive and stale access privileges is driving the market for role management,” said Kevin Kampman, senior analyst of Identity and Privacy Strategies at the Burton Group. “For enterprises, this creates an immediate challenge. While role management will ultimately result in organizational and administrative efficiencies, there is an immediate need for effective role management capabilities to meet the associated demands for administration and management.”

The Novell Identity Manager Roles Based Provisioning Module reduces the complexity and cost of identity and security management by helping IT managers establish access privileges to resources—including computer applications, telephone systems and building security systems—based on role membership within an organization. Permissions are managed according to departments, jobs or the specific tasks assigned to a person, minimizing the amount of IT administration required to add, delete or maintain system users’ access rights. High-security organizations, such as hospitals and financial institutions, can ensure that access rights for role memberships are managed properly for both internal and external regulatory compliance purposes.

Offering the industry’s most tightly integrated identity and role management solution, the addition of the Roles Based Provisioning Module provides IT managers with greater transparency and flexibility in managing permissions and includes full support for tactical decision-making, segregation of duties and attestation. Built into Identity Manager’s metadirectory, the module leverages Identity Manager’s robust, real-time responsiveness and extensive set of connectors. The end result is that enterprise customers can use roles to provision, monitor and record user access to protected information and resources and easily provide documented evidence to meet strict regulatory requirements.

“Novell is continually strengthening its identity and security management portfolio with products that address the security challenges of our enterprise customers,” said Jim Ebzery, senior vice president of Identity and Security Management at Novell. “For companies with thousands of employees with varying levels of access to sensitive systems and data, the task of monitoring and providing evidence of regulatory compliance can be daunting. We are helping our customers secure and manage their heterogeneous enterprises with a trusted roles based provisioning solution for governance, risk management and compliance initiatives, thus allowing them to focus on business innovation and growth.”

For more information on the Novell Identity Manager Roles Based Provisioning Module, visit www.novell.com/products/identitymanager.