SafeNet Unveils new Cloud functionality

SafeNet has announced new cloud functionality for its SafeWord 2008 strong authentication management platform.  SafeWord 2008 also includes identity federation and single sign-on (SSO) capabilities for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, including Salesforce.com and GoogleApps.  As key solutions in SafeNet's cloud security portfolio, both of SafeNet's authentication management platforms, SafeNet Authentication Manager (SAM) and SafeWord 2008, now enable customers to seamless extend enterprise identities to SaaS-based applications.

"The world's most user-friendly authentication management platform is now cloud enabled. As organizations start to widely adopt SaaS applications, they are looking for ways to leverage the operational efficiencies and scalability that the cloud brings, while still ensuring the security of their virtual assets. SafeNet now enables customers to easily and pragmatically extend their security strategies to include the cloud, without any changes to authentication platform or infrastructure," said Andrew Young, VP, Product Management, SafeNet, Inc.  

"By extending enterprise identity management to the cloud, businesses and organizations can achieve greater efficiency through SSO and better visibility into business processes through workflow monitoring, and reporting functions. 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 benefitting the overall business," said Sally Hudson, Research Director, Security Products and Services, IDC.

A unified platform features SSO that allows users to log on to enterprise and cloud-based applications with the same set of credentials. This simplifies and accelerates the log-on process for end users, and supports customer goals of driving down costs and better utilization of resources through central management of operations by IT staff.  Administrators no longer need to manage several sets of entitlements or credentials for disparate systems and applications, which also improves the process of attestation for both regulatory and internal policy compliance.