Oracle introduces federated identity tools
Published:14-September-2005
By BR staff writer
Keeping up with the Joneses, Oracle has joined the list of vendors that are expanding their internal identity management tools to support the kinds of federated scenarios involved with external business interactions.
Oracle announced the availability of Oracle Security Development Tools, a new set of components that enable applications developed on Oracle Application Server 10g Release 2 to support federated identities.
As part of the new release, Oracle is the latest player to provide tools supporting the dual competing approaches that are emerging to safeguarding authorization, authentication, and access to services in federated environments. That includes support of SAML 2.0 (Security Assertion Markup Language), which supports technology from earlier SAML versions and the Liberty Alliance.
Although the formal press release omits mention, according to Roger Sullivan, vice president for identity management solutions, says that Oracle will also support the so-called "WS-*" (pronounced "WS-Star") set of de facto standards being promoted by Microsoft, which have not been submitted to formal standards bodies. "Many of our customers have expressed interest in both sets of standards," he said.
Oracle's move follows similar dual support provided by players like BEA, IBM, and VeriSign. Oracle new federated identity tools will be available later in September.
