RSA Security Completes WS-Federation Interoperability Testing

RSA Security Completes WS-Federation Interoperability Testing with Microsoft, IBM and Other Leading Vendors

RSA Federated Identity Manager Demonstrates Support for Emerging Standard to Provide Identity Federation For Web Services Environments

San Diego, California, USA. May 25, 2004.

[See the Update from 2007-03-21]

RSA Security Inc. today announced that it has joined with Microsoft Corp., IBM and four other leading vendors to successfully complete interoperability testing with the WS-Federation specification. WS-Federation testing further extends RSA Security's early leadership in the federated identity marketplace and substantiates its commitment to support current and developing industry standards and specifications relating to identity federation. Such testing validates broad industry support for the developing web services security standards, ensuring interoperability that will help deliver cost savings, productivity increases and more seamless transport of identities across heterogeneous IT infrastructures. RSA Security support for the WS-Federation specification will be available in early 2005.

RSA Security is one of the co-authors of the WS-Security, WS-Federation and other related specifications aimed at sharing user and machine identities among disparate authentication and authorization systems. The RSA Federated Identity Manager, which was validated in the interoperability testing for the WS-Federation, is an enterprise class standalone solution that allows organizations to easily implement a system to securely exchange trusted identities across autonomous business units, among customers and partners, and between applications and web services. RSA Security's customers are using identity federation today to increase revenue opportunities; decrease application integration and user management costs; increase user productivity, security and compliance; and exploit new business opportunities.

"Customers are looking for ways to easily extend their network identity management to strategic partners in a web-services environment. We're very pleased to be working with RSA Security to develop and promote an interoperable federated identity management solution based on Web Services architecture," said Andy Lees, corporate vice president, Server and Tools Business Group, Microsoft Corp. "This solution offers our customers a tremendous opportunity to improve operational efficiency, strengthen IT security, and reduce costs for enabling business-to-business commerce."

According to Dan Blum, senior vice president and research director at Burton Group, a research and consulting firm specializing in network and applications infrastructure technologies, "Approximately 200 organizations are currently implementing browser-based federated identity solutions, primarily utilizing the SAML (Security Assertion Mark-up Language from OASIS) specification. A maturing market also requires standards for federating web services."

RSA Security hopes to help encourage and promote this market maturation and growth by participating in standards efforts targeted at the federated identity management space by contributing intellectual property, technical expertise and valuable lessons learned from working with early customer implementations.

"Federated identity is a natural next step in customers' realization of the benefits of web services, offering businesses, governments, employees and consumers a more convenient and secure way to control identity information in today's digital economy," said Jason Lewis, vice president of product management and marketing at RSA Security. "Competing federation standards will continue to be a reality for customers and vendors alike for the foreseeable future, and many companies that federate will require effective support of multiple standards, increasingly to bring more and more business partners online. We've been early supporters of every proposed specification in this space, including SAML and Liberty Alliance, and we're pleased to be able to participate in this early demonstration of interoperability of the WS- Federation specification."

RSA Security's federated bridging technology will enable companies to freely interoperate with their business partners and other enterprises using any of the known federation standards or specifications for linking user identities across autonomous domains or applications. These relationships can exist between internal business units or with external business partners and customers utilizing existing web services standards such as XML, SOAP, SAML and WS-Security. RSA Security support for the WS-Federation specification will be available in early 2005, extending its support for other federated identity standards and specifications such as SAML and Liberty ID-FF.

About RSA Security Inc.

RSA Security Inc. helps organizations protect private information and manage the identities of people and applications accessing and exchanging that information. RSA Security's portfolio of solutions — including identity & access management, secure mobile & remote access, secure enterprise access and secure transactions — are all designed to provide the most seamless e- security experience in the market. Our strong reputation is built on our history of ingenuity, leadership, proven technologies and our more than 14,000 customers around the globe. Together with more than 1,000 technology and integration partners, RSA Security inspires confidence in everyone to experience the power and promise of the Internet. For more information, please visit http://www.rsasecurity.com.

Contact

Tim Powers
RSA Security Inc.
Tel: +1 (781) 515-6212
Email: tpowers@rsasecurity.com

Update 2007-03-21: On March 19, 2007 OASIS acknowledged receipt of a draft TC charter proposal to create a Web Services Federation (WSFED) Technical Committee. The TC would accept as input the WS-Federation specification (Version 1.1) published by BEA Systems, BMC Software, CA, IBM, Layer 7 Technologies, Microsoft, Novell, and VeriSign. The revised WS-Federation specification Version 1.2 would extend basic federation capabilities enabled by WS-Security, WS-SecureConversation, WS-Trust, and WS-SecurityPolicy. Representatives from twenty-three companies provided statements of support for the charter proposal. See: "Proposed Charter: OASIS Web Services Federation (WSFED) Technical Committee."

[Source: http://www.rsasecurity.com/press_release.asp?doc_id=3939]

Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. See details and related references in the 2004-05-26 news story: "Industry Shows Heightened Interest in Federated Identity-Based Web Services."

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[See the Update from 2007-03-21] RSA Security Inc. today announced that it has joined with Microsoft Corp., IBM and four other leading vendors to successfully complete interoperability testing with the WS-Federation specification. WS-Federation testing further extends RSA Security's early leadership in the federated identity marketplace and substantiates its commitment to support current and developing industry standards and specifications relating to identity federation. Such testing validates broad industry support for the developing web services security standards, ensuring interoperability that will help deliver cost savings, productivity increases and more seamless transport of identities across heterogeneous IT infrastructures. RSA Security support for the WS-Federation specification will be available in early 2005. RSA Security is one of the co-authors of the WS-Security, WS-Federation and other related specifications aimed at sharing user and machine identities among disparate authentication and authorization systems. The RSA Federated Identity Manager, which was validated in the interoperability testing for the WS-Federation, is an enterprise class standalone solution that allows organizations to easily implement a system to securely exchange trusted identities across autonomous business units, among customers and partners, and between applications and web services. RSA Security's customers are using identity federation today to increase revenue opportunities; decrease application integration and user management costs; increase user productivity, security and compliance; and exploit new business opportunities. "Customers are looking for ways to easily extend their network identity management to strategic partners in a web-services environment. We're very pleased to be working with RSA Security to develop and promote an interoperable federated identity management solution based on Web Services architecture," said Andy Lees, corporate vice president, Server and Tools Business Group, Microsoft Corp. "This solution offers our customers a tremendous opportunity to improve operational efficiency, strengthen IT security, and reduce costs for enabling business-to-business commerce." According to Dan Blum, senior vice president and research director at Burton Group, a research and consulting firm specializing in network and applications infrastructure technologies, "Approximately 200 organizations are currently implementing browser-based federated identity solutions, primarily utilizing the SAML (Security Assertion Mark-up Language from OASIS) specification. A maturing market also requires standards for federating web services." RSA Security hopes to help encourage and promote this market maturation and growth by participating in standards efforts targeted at the federated identity management space by contributing intellectual property, technical expertise and valuable lessons learned from working with early customer implementations. "Federated identity is a natural next step in customers' realization of the benefits of web services, offering businesses, governments, employees and consumers a more convenient and secure way to control identity information in today's digital economy," said Jason Lewis, vice president of product management and marketing at RSA Security. "Competing federation standards will continue to be a reality for customers and vendors alike for the foreseeable future, and many companies that federate will require effective support of multiple standards, increasingly to bring more and more business partners online. We've been early supporters of every proposed specification in this space, including SAML and Liberty Alliance, and we're pleased to be able to participate in this early demonstration of interoperability of the WS- Federation specification." RSA Security's federated bridging technology will enable companies to freely interoperate with their business partners and other enterprises using any of the known federation standards or specifications for linking user identities across autonomous domains or applications. These relationships can exist between internal business units or with external business partners and customers utilizing existing web services standards such as XML, SOAP, SAML and WS-Security. RSA Security support for the WS-Federation specification will be available in early 2005, extending its support for other federated identity standards and specifications such as SAML and Liberty ID-FF. About RSA Security Inc. RSA Security Inc. helps organizations protect private information and manage the identities of people and applications accessing and exchanging that information. RSA Security's portfolio of solutions — including identity & access management, secure mobile & remote access, secure enterprise access and secure transactions — are all designed to provide the most seamless e- security experience in the market. Our strong reputation is built on our history of ingenuity, leadership, proven technologies and our more than 14,000 customers around the globe. Together with more than 1,000 technology and integration partners, RSA Security inspires confidence in everyone to experience the power and promise of the Internet. For more information, please visit http://www.rsasecurity.com. Contact Tim Powers RSA Security Inc. Tel: +1 (781) 515-6212 Email: tpowers@rsasecurity.com Update 2007-03-21: On March 19, 2007 OASIS acknowledged receipt of a draft TC charter proposal to create a Web Services Federation (WSFED) Technical Committee. The TC would accept as input the WS-Federation specification (Version 1.1) published by BEA Systems, BMC Software, CA, IBM, Layer 7 Technologies, Microsoft, Novell, and VeriSign. The revised WS-Federation specification Version 1.2 would extend basic federation capabilities enabled by WS-Security, WS-SecureConversation, WS-Trust, and WS-SecurityPolicy. Representatives from twenty-three companies provided statements of support for the charter proposal. See: "Proposed Charter: OASIS Web Services Federation (WSFED) Technical Committee." [Source: http://www.rsasecurity.com/press_release.asp?doc_id=3939] Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. See details and related references in the 2004-05-26 news story: "Industry Shows Heightened Interest in Federated Identity-Based Web Services."