Symplified's Unified User Management Synchronizes Data Center, Cloud

New capabilities help IT enforce access management and single sign-on for traditional applications and cloud applications; enables transformation of Google Apps, Salesforce.com into directory service

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Symplified has released a new provisioning fabric for its SinglePoint identity and access management (IAM) solution. These new capabilities -- Symplified Sync, Symplified Identity Vault, and the SinglePoint Virtual Directory -- provide centralized, one-to-many capabilities for managing and synchronizing user identities regardless of whether they reside in on-premises IT infrastructures or cloud applications. In addition, the Symplified Identity Vault for Google and Salesforce.com transforms these two cloud applications into a cloud directory service for managing user accounts and serving as an authentication mechanism for other applications.

To enable organizations to query multiple identity silos in order to centrally enforce access management policies for all applications, the SinglePoint Virtual Directory unifies on-premises and cloud user repositories. The SinglePoint Virtual Directory provides normalization, attribute mapping, data transformation, and support for a wide range of LDAP and RDBMS systems as well as cloud services. For example, this capability would allow a company to enforce access control policies for a Web portal of applications using Active Directory for employees, Sun LDAP for partners, and Salesforce.com for customers and prospects. This core integration technology provided by the SinglePoint platform eliminates the need to:

  • Migrate or consolidate existing user stores

  • Write customized code for data exchange between repositories

  • Change underlying schemas to provide a normalized role model across silos

For organizations that use Microsoft Active Directory, Symplified Sync provides synchronization of user account information, including migration, provisioning, updates, and de-provisioning, for cloud applications. Initially, Google and Salesforce.com are supported, with additional cloud applications to be added over time. Symplified Sync maps user attributes from Microsoft Active Directory to the target application according to established access control policies. Administrators can create, modify or retire accounts once in Microsoft Active Directory and changes are automatically propagated in the cloud application.

For companies that rely primarily on cloud applications, lack an on-premises directory infrastructure, or want to move their on-premises directory to the cloud, Symplified Identity Vault provides a cloud directory service to securely host identities. Identity Vault sits between the Salesforce.com and Google applications and enables organizations to use these internet-scale and highly available infrastructures as user directories. It eliminates the need for on-premises directory infrastructure with its heavy, complex architecture and ongoing operational expense.

Similarly, Symplified Identity Vault can be used to eliminate identity repository sprawl in the cloud. For example, Symplified Identity Vault can be used to support a partner or customer portal. Instead of creating a standalone user store for the portal, partners/customers can authenticate against the Salesforce.com database which would be used to verify their credentials and grant/deny access requests. Using Symplified Sync in combination with Symplified Identity Vaults provides a simple and rapid way to migrate from on-premises Active Directory infrastructures to cloud-based directories. This solution can be can also be implemented in a hybrid state to support both Active Directory and cloud directories for controlled and gradual migrations.

Symplified Virtual Directory, Symplified Sync, and Symplified Identity Vault are available immediately from Symplified and on Amazon EC2 via the Symplified Trust Cloud. Monthly subscription pricing is based per user per application.

More information is available at www.symplified.com.

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