• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Forum Systems Announces Unified Policy Management Solution for Enterprise SOA and Web Services Security

Posted on: Thursday, 6 October 2005, 12:00 CDT

Forum Systems, the leader in Web services security for threat protection and trust management, announced today the availability of its Unified Policy Management application (UPM(TM)) for the creation, maintenance, deployment and governance of enterprise Web services and SOA security policies. UPM reduces administrative complexities and decreases the learning curve associated with managing security policies to effectively and efficiently protect SOA and Web Services environments.

A diverse set of initiatives, groups (OASIS, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)) and vendors (Microsoft, IBM and BEA Sun, Oracle) continuously release and update specifications and standards in order to address the risks of using XML, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Web Services Description Language (WSDL) and Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI). This creates an ongoing challenge for organizations that need to tailor policies to meet relevant SOA security requirements such as SOAP message security, token profiles and protocols for secure conversations. Today, organizations are hindered by administrative overheads, difficulty in codifying specifications and lack of consistency when enforcing policies.

Forum UPM(TM) allows administrators to manage the life-cycle of Web services security from provisioning services, entitlements and risk management. Forum UPM(TM) is an extensible security policy management system with design and configuration features that can incorporate new specifications and upgrades in standards. For example, UPM(TM) enables an administrator to leverage the multiple versions of SAML 1.1/1.0 (Security Assertion Markup Language), WS-Security 2004/2002 without violating security rules already in place.

"Working with customers, Forum Systems took a look at the constantly evolving landscape of WS-Security and it became clear that policy complexity is a significant barrier to enterprise-wide SOA security," said Walid Negm, Vice President of Marketing of Forum Systems. "Forum UPM(TM) avoids a stalemate between useful specifications and the need to lower the total cost of ownership. This was recently validated by a Fortune 50 Financial Services using Forum's policy-driven SOA security solutions for a return on investment of at least 300%, a payback period of 5 months and process efficiency improvements of 80%."

Forum UPM(TM) Feature Benefits:

-- Enable reuse and management of security policies

-- Create a common enforcement point of Web Services security

-- Improve performance and consistency for XML Web Services applications

-- Eliminate emergent and disruptive internal and externally facing behavior

-- Improve time-to-market of business integration projects using Web services

-- Remove complex and hard to manage conformance and security code

Forum UPM(TM) is fully integrated into the Forum XWall Web Services Firewall and Sentry Web Services Security Gateway.

About Forum XWall Web Services Firewall

Forum XWall is the first and only standalone Web Services Firewall with XIP(TM) (XML Intrusion Prevention), WS-I Profile conformance, XML Schema Restriction, WSDL Access Control and now XML Antivirus. Forum XAV is currently available with the release of Forum XWall X5.0 in software and hardware appliance options. The pricing for Forum XWall with XAV ranges from $5,000 to $40,000 depending on software and hardware configuration, with additional subscription fees for antivirus and VulCon updates. The product is available from Forum's Website, direct sales and channel and OEM partners.

About Forum Systems

Trustworthy, ubiquitous and robust Web services can only be achieved by combining security controls that are proactive, always on and systematic. Forum Seamless Security Solutions Architecture (Forum S3A(TM)) is an adaptive approach to building security minded service-oriented applications and data-level networks using life-cycle solutions including vulnerability management, testing systems, firewalls and gateways. Forum products are available as software, PCI-card and appliance options and comply with government requirements including FIPS Certification, Common Criteria EAL 4+ and JITC DoD PKI Certification. Forum Systems is an active a member of OASIS and WS-I helping mature standards such as WS-I Basic Profiles, SAML and WS-Security. Customers can immediately benefit from Forum technology that is bundled with market-leading products including Microsoft ISA Server 2004, NetContinuum NC-1000 WSE, Network Engines NS6300X, and Oblix COREid and COREsv. For more information on adaptive solutions for Web services security visit http://vulcon.forumsys.com.

Forum Systems, Inc. is the Leader in Web Services Security(TM) with a comprehensive suite of trust management, threat protection and information assurance solutions for the automated Web. Forum Systems' flexible hardware, software and embedded products make vibrant business communications possible by actively protecting XML data and Web services across networks and business boundaries. Forum's products have been chosen by over 80 Fortune 1000 industry leaders and are winners of Network Computing Magazine's Well-Connected 2004 Award and Product of the Year 2004 Award, Network Computing Magazine's Editor's Choice 2003 Award, Network Magazine's Product of the Year 2003 Award and DEMO 2004 Invitation. Forum XWall Web Services Firewall is the industry's only XML Firewall selected by InfoWorld LEADERBOARD 2004. Visit Forum at http://www.forumsys.com/.

Source: Business Wire

More News in this Category