CA`s eTrust Admin 2.0 cuts enterprise security costs with streamlined management of user provisioning

Computer Associates International, Inc (CA) today announced the availability eTrust Admin 2.0, an enterprise-scale solution for streamlining the administration of user provisioning across IT resources, physical access and issuance of company-supplied assets.

By providing administrators with complete control of all accounts and resources across systems through a common, intuitive interface, eTrust Admin 2.0 can significantly reduce the cost of enterprise security operations while helping ensure optimum control of corporate assets. eTrust Admin can further increase the efficiency of security operations by leveraging customers` existing investments in directory services to deliver highly automated, role-based user account management.

eTrust Admin 2.0 also features a variety of self-service options that can substantially reduce help desk workloads. These include self-registration, self-service password reset, and self-service administration of personal profiles and/or workflow. New self-service functions can also be tightly integrated within existing business and human resource systems, reducing complexity for end-users. Enhanced workflow automates the approval process associated with user change requests for account changes and for the provisioning of physical equipment.

The combined savings can make eTrust Admin a particularly high-ROI solution for today`s complex e-business environments.

"With 20 000 user accounts to manage across legacy and distributed platforms, it`s critical for us to control the costs associated with security administration," said Wenke Skjerve, assistant vice president of security for BBS a Norwegian clearinghouse that handles credit card transactions for Norway. "CA`s eTrust Admin will help us achieve this control by delivering more efficient centralised administration, increased automation, and an intelligent approach to user self-service."

According to Datamonitor, unauthorised access accounts for 42% of all security breaches. eTrust Admin 2.0 helps eliminate these breaches by enabling organisations to apply access policies consistently across diverse systems. Its role-based automation ensures that terminated employees are removed from all systems the moment they leave the company. New, re-assigned and promoted employees can be automatically set up with the accounts they require - enabling them to become more productive, more quickly.

"Through the simple web-based interface in eTrust Admin 2.0, the day-to-day process of managing users and resetting their passwords can be delegated to non-IT administrators, such as HR or line-of-business managers," said Tony Hart, managing analyst, business e-infrastructure team at Datamonitor. "Ultimately, this saves time, money and also releases critical IT resources that can be used in higher priority tasks."

The more rapid fulfilment of change requests can also deliver "soft" benefits, such as increasing the satisfaction of employees, customers and partners. Typically, three to seven days pass between a request for a change in account authorisation and its fulfilment. With CA`s eTrust Admin, such requests can be fulfilled in minutes.

Brigham Young University`s Office of Information Technology, which manages accounts for about 150 servers in its data centre, selected eTrust Admin.2.0 for complete, immediate control over account creation and deletion. "We needed to react quickly to changing application/platform access requirements while reducing the help desk burden related to password resets," said Karl Jackson, infrastructure engineer at BYU. "eTrust Admin, with its policy-driven, automated propagation of account changes, delegated administration and self-service password reset, gave us exactly what we were looking for."

eTrust Admin supports CA`s complete line of eTrust security solutions. It also delivers out-of-the box support for popular mainframe, client/server, e-mail and database platforms. A new agent interfaces with any LDAP-compliant directory, providing easy integration with LDAP servers, as well as ERP systems, Web single sign-on systems and other third-party solutions. This broad coverage, together with eTrust Admin`s practical, user-friendly Software Development Kit, provides complete support for managing users across the enterprise.

"Our corporate customers have told us they need to reduce their operational costs while managing the identity of employees, customers and partners over time," said Simon Perry, CA`s vice president of eTrust solutions. "With eTrust Admin 2.0, CA has delivered a complete, standards-based solution for identity lifecycle management."

CA is the world`s leading provider of authentication, authorisation and administration (3A) security software, according to IDC. The company`s eTrust line of e-business security solutions includes access and authentication control, virus protection, digital certificate management, and other advanced technologies essential to the protection of IT assets. Additional information about CA`s eTrust product line is available at http://ca.com/etrust.