Safenet to provide cloud option for its identity management software

SafeNet has released a new version of its Safeword 2008 authentication management platform to include cloud functionality.

SafeWord 2008 now includes identity federation and single sign-on (SSO) capabilities for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, including Salesforce and Google Apps. The new version will allow customers to seamlessly extend enterprise identities to SaaS-based applications.

The company said that by federating an enterprise user identity via Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), SafeNet’s authentication management platforms organisations would be able allow users to have the same login credentials for both on-premise and cloud-based applications.

“The world’s most user-friendly authentication management platform is now cloud enabled,” said Andrew Young, vice president, product management at SafeNet. “SafeNet now enables customers to easily and pragmatically extend their security strategies to include the cloud, without any changes to authentication platform or infrastructure.”

The issue of enabling identity management is a key one for SaaS providers and Safenet’s move has received analyst approval. "By extending enterprise identity management to the cloud, businesses and organisations can achieve greater efficiency through SSO and better visibility into business processes through workflow monitoring, and reporting functions,” said Sally Hudson, research director, security products and services at IDC.

"Further, as cloud infrastructure absorbs routine activities performed by employees today, employers have greater freedom to deploy resources on adjacent or new business-critical strategies benefiting the overall business,” she added.