Web Services Hot Topic At Catalyst

Held here by consulting firm Burton Group, the conference also will focus on emerging Web services security standards.

Netegrity plans to introduce the next phase of its integrated platform for portal, identity and access management. Slated for availability in October, the platform includes new solutions for identity management and Web services security.

One solution, Identity Minder 5.5, features a customizable role-based system and a complete workflow system to support standard business processes such as adding new employees, said Bill Bartow, vice president of products at Netegrity, Waltham, Mass.

TransactionMinder provides access control for Web services, Bartow said. "[Customers see tremendous cost savings, but they want to make sure these Web services are secure. And TransactionMinder will fill that role," he said.

RSA Security, Bedford, Mass., also is focusing on identity management, which is top of mind for customers as they move online, said Ted Kamionek, RSA's senior product manager.

RSA will be among several vendors at Catalyst showing interoperability of software products that comply with version 1.0 of SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language), an XML-based open standard for exchanging authentication and authorization information.

Last week, RSA said it plans to release SAML-compliant ClearTrust Web access management software by the end of the year.

Also at the show, RSA will participate in The Liberty Alliance Project's release of its open specification for user identification on the Web via a variety of devices. RSA is among the vendors in the alliance, which is spearheaded by Sun Microsystems. RSA will demonstrate a product based on the spec, Kamionek said.

Initiatives such as the Liberty Alliance Project are key for the Web services market, said Chris Wells, senior consultant at Syntegra, Arden Hills, Minn. "By ensuring that specifications around identity management are developed in an open, interoperable way, Web services, e-commerce and SSO [single sign-on stand to benefit."