Oracle adds management to Oracle Virtual Directory; Penrose posts new virtual directory

Identity Management This newsletter is sponsordd by Symantec Security Information Management Solutions: Beyond Threat Management Learn the latest Security Information Management best practices from IT research firm Forrester Research and Symantec. Watch now and also discover how solutions are evolving, as well as how to get more out of SIM - much more than incident response and threat management. Network World's Identity Management Newsletter, 05/28/07 Oracle adds management to Oracle Virtual Directory; Penrose posts new virtual directory By Dave Kearns Right on the heels of SAP’s announcement of its purchase of virtual directory vendor MaXware, which we covered in last week’s newsletter, comes news of new releases in virtual directory technology on two fronts. Oracle (whose 2006 acquisition of OctetString may have been the nudge that SAP needed in identity management) announced last week that it had integrated Enterprise User Security (EUS), a feature of Oracle Database 10g, with Oracle Virtual Directory. The move enables organizations to centrally manage database user identities through their existing corporate directories such as Oracle Internet Directory, Microsoft Active Directory and Sun Java System Directory Server. Delivering on the promises made at the time of the OctetString acquisition, the database leader can now offer its customers (at least, the Oracle 10g customers) the ability to use EUS to virtually provision database user accounts, assign database roles, centrally manage user authentication and authorization, and enable self-service features such as password resets in existing corporate directories. That’s just not feasible without a robust virtual directory engine. Data Center Power & Cooling Options Tune into this webcast on Data Center Power and Cooling Options for tips and advice on how to prepare your data center for the future. Network World's Editor-in-Chief John Dix discusses current data center challenges and how to overcome them with data center expert Robert McFarlane of Shen, Milson & Wilke. Click to watch today! Not to be overshadowed the open source virtual directory effort, the Penrose Project, has just posted a new release – version 1.2. This addresses a real need for older Unix installations by providing a better way to modernize a Network Information Service installation. As Penrose lead Jim Yang explains: “The usual approach to NIS is: 1. Migrate everything from NIS to LDAP; then 2. Attach NIS Gateway to the LDAP.” The problem with that is what Penrose calls “the Big Bang” – migrating all of your NIS in one fell swoop. The Penrose approach can be called a “reverse gateway,” providing an LDAP view of NIS entries in real-time while allowing the administration of existing entries through the NIS interface until you’ve finished the migration. If any problems occur, you can always roll back and start again without disrupting the network. In addition to support for ApacheDS and OpenLDAP, Penrose integrated OpenDS and FedoraDS support. Go here http://penrose.safehaus.org/penrose/news.html for all the details and the download pointers. Virtual directories are an important part of any full-featured identity management scenario. There should be one as part of your platform. Events: Identity, and identity conferences seem to be growing faster in Europe than elsewhere. NetPro and Microsoft, for example, just announced a return to Europe. The Directory Experts Conference Europe will be held at the Sheraton Brussels Hotel in Brussels, Belgium, Sept. 24-26, 2007. Details are available here and registration is now open. Downloads: Both the new release (1.2) and the “stable” release (1.1) of Penrose are available for download, so that you can – for no cost – experience the value of a virtual directory.   What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

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Contact the author: Dave Kearns is a writer and consultant in Silicon Valley. He's written a number of books including the (sadly) now out of print "Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Networks." His musings can be found at Virtual Quill. Kearns is the author of two Network World Newsletters: Windows Networking Strategies, and Identity Management. Comments about these newsletters should be sent to him at these respective addresses: windows@vquill.com, identity@vquill.com . Kearns provides content services to network vendors: books, manuals, white papers, lectures and seminars, marketing, technical marketing and support documents. Virtual Quill provides "words to sell by..." Find out more by e-mail. This newsletter is sponsordd by Symantec Security Information Management Solutions: Beyond Threat Management Learn the latest Security Information Management best practices from IT research firm Forrester Research and Symantec. Watch now and also discover how solutions are evolving, as well as how to get more out of SIM - much more than incident response and threat management. ARCHIVE Archive of the Identity Management Newsletter. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: security.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007