06/25/2008

Symplified announced at the Catalyst Conference a SaaS offering for Web access management in tomid market organizations. Powered by the Symplified SinglePoint network, the company introduced a monthly subscription service manage identity integration projects though a simple online service activation.

ebizQ received the following:

"Cloud-based, on demand applications present new challenges for identity management practitioners. New models for managing and sharing identities are required to map to the interconnected and on-demand nature of Internet-based systems," said Gerry Gebel, vice president and service director at Burton Group. "We expect that a services-based approach to identity management will help to address the distributed nature of 21st century computing."

Cloud Computing Changes the Identity Equation

Although traditional on-premise web access management challenges – single sign-on, access control, audit, compliance, etc. – remain, Software as a Service (SaaS) has created an environment where more and more applications and identity repositories are residing outside the "walled garden" of corporate networks. Traditional access management software was not designed to support this new distributed world. Symplified has developed a 'no software' architecture that delivers identity management at the network layer to support both inside the enterprise and in the cloud requirements.

SinglePoint: Identity Services Delivered On Demand

To eliminate the complexity and interdependencies imposed by custom code, agents, and plug-ins required with software-based solutions, Symplified created the SinglePoint network. Using standards-based technologies, SinglePoint adapts to an organization's IT environment (enterprise applications, SaaS applications and user repositories) and replaces custom integration with simple activation. SinglePoint delivers four categories of identity management services:

• Enterprise and custom applications: integrated web access management for SAP, Oracle, Citrix, Java, .Net etc.

• SaaS applications: Single Sign On (SSO), access control and dynamic provisioning for Salesforce, Workday, Google, etc.

• Symplified application suite: Internet SSO, access and authorization, dynamic provisioning and synchronization, authentication, auditing and compliance, etc.

• Third party security applications: strong authentication, identity proofing, etc.

Organizations connect to the SinglePoint network using one of two options: the Symplified Identity Cloud™ or the Symplified Identity Router™. A simple yet powerful Web 2.0 interface – SinglePoint Studio™ – is used to visually manage services and configure security policies without custom code

"Traditional software approaches to Web Identity require significant amounts of time and money to get up and running, and don't support SaaS applications," said Eric Olden, founder and CEO of Symplified. "As the first and only pure SaaS identity company we understand first hand the challenges of unifying the enterprise with the cloud. To handle the increasing scale and complexity of On Demand computing, Enterprise 2.0 must move beyond installed software and adopt cloud computing using the power of network delivered capabilities. We developed the SinglePoint network to eliminate the complexity that has kept identity management out of reach for mid-market companies."

Symplified Identity Cloud – The Postini of Web Identity

For easy evaluations and organizations seeking a purely hosted deployment model, the Symplified Identity Cloud is a completely hosted solution. Using a model similar to Postini's secure messaging service, organizations activate the Symplified Identity Cloud by modifying a simple proxy configuration on their network routers to easily protect an enterprise's Web applications without installing any software. The Identity Cloud can connect to an organization's user repositories via secure Web services, and is also available with a hosted LDAP option for a completely cloud-based implementation. The Symplified Identity Cloud combines a highly scalable grid architecture with massively multi-tenant design, and is housed in a secure SAS 70 Type II data center. This level of security is unmatched by mid market enterprises and many of the world's largest organizations.

Symplified Identity Router – The Identity Set Top Box

To provide seamless on-premise connectivity between multiple identity repositories, applications inside an organization, and the SinglePoint network, Symplified created the world's first identity router. This 'no software' hardened appliance can process millions of transactions per day, and enforces security policies configured online via SinglePoint Studio. The Identity Router operates as a Layer 2 bridge, so it does not require agents or impose any changes to the existing network infrastructure. This managed device is monitored 24X7 by Symplified, which performs remote upgrades and administration.