Novell offers security for cloud

BANGALORE, INDIA: Novell today unveiled Identity Manager 4 for secure management of identity and access across physical, virtual and cloud environments.

The solution would ensure consistent identity, security and compliance policies for an organization’s entire IT ecosystem, including offering the same level of trust in the cloud that exists in the data center, said a press release. As a result, customers and partners can better protect their corporate data while reducing the cost and complexity of demonstrating compliance.

Business models such as distributed management, outsourcing and on-demand software and computing, such as SaaS, make today’s IT ecosystem complex. Managing data and transactions on-premise and off-premise, combined with increasing regulatory requirements, calls for organizations to have a holistic view of who has access to what resources to ensure compliance.  Novell addresses this core problem by enabling centralized user provisioning, roles management and secure access to resources and applications - whether in the data center or in the cloud.

“The emergence of virtual and cloud-driven business models has created new challenges around identity and access management. CIOs need a consistent, extensible platform for managing identities inside and outside the walls of their enterprise -- or their cloud strategy will fail,” said Ron Hovsepian, CEO of Novell.

“Novell Identity Manager 4 delivers a secure, cloud-ready platform to address this challenge so customers can benefit from intelligent workload management.”

The beta program for this solution is already underway, with more than 50 large customers and partners worldwide actively participating, said the release.

Novell Identity Manager 4 extends the capabilities of Novell Identity Manager 3.6 to include enhanced scalability and tight integration with Microsoft SharePoint, SAP ERP systems and cloud applications including Salesforce.com and Google Apps. It also offers reporting capabilities and tools for data cleansing and policy framework design.

Novell Identity Manager 4 Advanced Edition offers roles management, advanced workflow capabilities, and intelligent reporting capabilities. It is designed to support the identity and compliance needs for the most advanced enterprise or managed service provider. It also includes tools for data cleansing, policy framework design and the ability to define roles and entitlements using a simple drag and drop functionality, eliminating the need to write code.