IBM dives into online ID realm

IBM is today expected to unveil its Tivoli Federated Identity Manager, which allows a corporate client's employees, partners and customers to securely share information over the internet.

TFIM is Big Blue's first federated product, although this is not its first foray into the federated realm. Last October, at the urging of a client, IBM joined Liberty Alliance, an internet security consortium that's developing industry standards for verifying a person's identity when he or she accesses websites.

Federated identity allows employees, customers or partners to log on to a company's website, get their identity authenticated and then have that site vouch for their identity while they try to gain access to other companies' websites and networks.

Joe Anthony, IBM Tivoli's identity management director said: "Employees who want to look up heath care benefits may have to look at a third-party site and, typically, would have to enter another log-on name and password. Now, they could link in automatically to that third-party site."

The federated identity manager will allow users to sign on for internal and external services throughout the company and to contact any of the company's partners authorised to use the TFIM.

The product is compatible with several federated identity standards and specifications, including Liberty, SAML, WS-Federation, WS-Security and WS-Trust.

TFIM is expected to begin shipping later this month, Anthony said.

Industry analysts say the product will go head-to-head with Computer Associates' identity management offerings.

Computer Associates, via its Netegrity acquisition last year, offers web services security management and identity access management.

Jason Bloomberg, a senior analyst with ZapThink, said now that it has acquired Netegrity: "It's still an open question how CA will put all its pieces together."

Dawn Kawamoto writes for CNET News.com