IBM Buys Access360

"IBM has laid down the gauntlet," said Scott Silk, senior vice president of sales and marketing at ePresence, a Westborough, Mass.-based solution provider that focuses on identity management solutions. "It's a wake-up to Sun [Microsystems and Microsoft,which have had some leadership in the space,that IBM is going after it."

Identity management has become an increasingly hot technology area in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Silk said. A number of companies, including Novell, are pushing hard into the secure identity management market.

"Post-[Sept. 11, people really want to batten down the hatches from a security perspective," he said.

Mike Twomey, vice president of channel and business development at IBM Tivoli, said, "The great opportunity here, of course, is to leverage our channels in the identity manage-

ment space."

Access360 partners that are not already working with IBM will now have access to the vendor's channel programs and wide range of products, Twomey said.

Until now, Access360, Irvine, Calif., has primarily sold its products direct, with a limited number of VAR and systems integrator partners, so the acquisition should invigorate sales of Access360's enRole security provisioning product, said Lou Rubbo, principal at DirSec, a directory and security solution provider in Centennial, Colo.

"It gives [Access360 a sales reach it didn't have before," Rubbo said.

Access360's enRole automatically provisions access to appropriate applications based on a user's role within an organization and then shuts off that access when the employee leaves the company, reducing security risks and improving business efficiency, said Paul Gigg, CEO of Access360.

Rubbo said Access360's sale to IBM was surprising. "It's interesting in that some of the technology is integrated more closely with Sun than with IBM technology," he said.

The deal is expected to close early next quarter. Financial terms were not disclosed.

After the acquisition closes, IBM plans initially to sell Access360's enRole software as is until it can integrate the software with its own Tivoli Identity Manager as a new release early next year, IBM executives said.

Under IBM, the enRole product line will continue to support a variety of platforms, including Sun, Twomey said. Pricing on the product should not significantly change, he said.