New RSA Solutions Hit the Starting Blocks in Race to Adaptive Identity and Access Management

Traditional Identity and Access Management (IAM) systems are under enormous stress in large part due to the rampant use of mobile devices, software-as-a-service and the exponential growth in digital identities. Enterprises desperately seek a higher level of identity assurance to verify and authorize end user access to web and cloud-based applications.  RSA’s vision for addressing this complex issue is embodied in a new RSA technology brief released this week called “Adaptive IAM: Defending the Borderless Enterprise”. The race is on, and the realization of this vision is expressed, in part, through new product integrations within RSA’s IAM solution portfolio.

RSA Adaptive IAM Journey

Marrying Risk Analytics & Strong Access Controls

While the vision is certainly a journey, RSA’s IAM portfolio is evolving to help customers get started on the right foot and foundation. A critical initial step is having risk analytics tied to strong access controls protecting enterprise applications. Toward that end, RSA Access Manager 6.2, which is engineered to centrally manages authentication and authorization policies for access to web portals and applications, is now integrated with our flagship RSA Authentication Manger 8 software, the brains behind RSA SecurID technology.

To provide additional options for securing web access with risk analytics, RSA also continues to deepen integration between RSA Adaptive Authentication and RSA Access Manager.  RSA Access Manager 6.2 adds new integration with RSA Adaptive Authentication’s out-of-band SMS, in addition to existing out-of-band email and out-of-band phone authentication methods. This version of RSA Access Manager also introduces extended support for Microsoft SharePoint 2010 claims-based authentication, which optimizes secure partner collaboration across portals and includes secure token service.

Creating Rich User Profiles

The second step toward Adaptive IAM is aggregating and synchronizing user profile data from across the existing identity infrastructure into one single source of identity truth for each user. Recently released RSA Adaptive Directory 6.1 delivers one virtual view of all users and entitlements, and now incorporates identity data stores in cloud-based applications as well as on-premise identity infrastructure including LDAP directories, Active Directory and databases. RSA Adaptive Directory 6.1 includes support for cloud-based identity data stores including those in Microsoft SharePoint, Salesforce, Google Apps, Office 365, Concur and Workday.

Identity Federation

Once trusted identities are established, a third key capability is to use identity federation to provide identities to, or absorb identities from, business partners or cloud-based services that lack trustworthiness or use their own less reliable identity models. RSA’s identity federation as a service, RSA Adaptive Federation 1.5 R3, now helps users who need a simple solution to extend Microsoft ADFS infrastructure to federate to any Office 365 or other cloud-based applications. For on-premise deployments, RSA Federated Identity Manager provides an extensible architecture for federated, highly customizable single sign-on.

RSA is committed to innovation and helping our customers navigate the changing threat landscape.   With this vision and updated portfolio, we are excited to offer security technology practitioners a blueprint and starting point for moving forward on the journey toward Adaptive IAM.

About the Author: Luiza Aguiar