Open source software (OSS) supporters Novell and JBoss have expanded their existing relationship to bring to market what they claim is the first OSS-based application services platform that is also identity-aware.
Ashish Larivee, product marketing manager for Novell`s exteNd and Nsure offerings, told ITWeb on the first day of BrainShare US that application service platforms brought the necessary abstraction to applications to deliver them as services, no matter the location, device or other factors limiting access.
"But the identity awareness disappeared along with that abstraction. The impact is on security and compliance, among others. If a user accesses an application via a PDA from the airport, the rule of authentication is inapplicable to that user`s normal access. With identity-based application services, you have ubiquitous, abstracted policies."
Larivee points out that ID-aware application services also benefit business changes such as mergers or management changes, which are the normal course of what she terms "the chaotic, heterogeneous reality of business today".
"You can assign an identity to a process, rather than just a user accessing a certain system, with that link disappearing when you have to change a rule in a business change," she says.
In terms of the announcement, Novell will contribute code and engineering resources to the JBoss Enterprise Middleware System (JEMS), and participate in the architectural design and direction of JBoss projects, including JBoss Portal.
Aside from security, agility and intellectual property, Novell also brings market certainty to JBoss, says Larivee, adding the oft-recited gospel that customers now have "one neck to wring - or not, hopefully".
The vendor will incorporate components of JEMS into exteNd and its Application Services Framework - also announced today. The joint effort will provide hardware and software vendors with software development kits for quick development of software with a consistent security model - without having to build identity into each application, says Larivee.
As a first step, the press announcement disclosed, Novell will contribute its Web Services for Remote Portlets to help accelerate delivery of JBoss Portal, a component of the JEMS stack.
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