BMC Software Enhances Provisioning Solution with Increased Scalability and Flexible Deployment Options - BMC

BMC Software Enhances Provisioning Solution with Increased Scalability and Flexible Deployment Options

Open APIs Allow CONTROL-SA^® Customers to Integrate Security Management with Business Applications that Deliver Workflow Automation.

HOUSTON - (Jan. 22, 2003) - BMC Software, Inc., [NYSE: BMC], a leader in enterprise management, today announced enhancements to its user provisioning solution, CONTROL-SA^®, including agentless management, a Web Console, a multi-region Enterprise SecurityStation^®, new open provisioning APIs and a virtual directory. Based on successful implementations and customer feedback, these enhancements allow CONTROL-SA to deliver flexible deployment options, increase its scalability and make its repository accessible via standard LDAP calls. The new version also offers open APIs, which allow CONTROL-SA customers to integrate security management with other business applications that deliver workflow automation.

Flexible Deployment Options
CONTROL-SA's XpressAgent methodology offers easy deployment options for customers. By giving the customers a choice between agent-based and agentless management, this methodology allows customers to optimally configure their environment. While agents offer real time management capabilities, critical in certain areas, agentless management, with its remote monitoring capabilities, reduces implementation and maintenance complexity. Based on their needs customers can choose to mix and match these technologies. A new Web-based security console, the CONTROL-SA/Web Console further eases the deployment. The CONTROL-SA/Web Console allows security administrators to rapidly provision and de-provision users, and because of its browser heritage, the Console minimizes the training requirements for new security administrators.

Unmatched Scalability
Targeted for larger global enterprises, the Multi-Region Enterprise SecurityStation offers security management over various geographies and regions. This allows different regions to manage their security to comply with their local regulations, while one central console ensures that the information is always synchronized and provides customers with a comprehensive view of their system. Since each region only maintains its own information, this feature affords virtually unlimited scalability. Additional benefits from the Multi-Region Enterprise SecurityStation implementation include:

• Synchronization of password across regions
• Ensuring data integrity, using the central console as a back-up
• Central Console acting as a remote backup site

Combining the Versatility of RDBMS with the Convenience of LDAP Interface
An additional enhancement allows CONTROL-SA to have standard LDAP access. This provides user information in the CONTROL-SA repository using standard LDAP commands. The LDAP compatibility is delivered by combining RadiantOne Virtual Directory Server from Radiant Logic, Inc., a leading provider of directory software, with CONTROL-SA. BMC Software will offer RadiantOne Virtual Directory Server as an OEM to all new CONTROL-SA customers and part of a maintenance release to the current customers. This enables various LDAP-based applications such as reporting and audit tools to elicit user information from the CONTROL-SA repository and to report on user violations.

Open Architecture for Easy Integration with Other Applications
BMC Software has created an initiative to promote openness and interoperability between CONTROL-SA and business applications that deliver workflow automation in an enterprise setting. As a result, customers using workflow, either BMC Software's, homegrown or third-party, to map their business processes can realize greater value with CONTROL-SA through increased automation and efficiency and reduced administration costs. This ability to integrate with other security products made CONTROL-SA attractive to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. "We were looking for a user provisioning solution that would help us streamline our account management practice in a secure manner," said Lew Wagner, chief information security officer at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. "It was critical that this solution integrate with and allow us to leverage our existing Lotus Notes environment. We also chose CONTROL-SA because of its enterprise-wide scalability and modular format. With its open provisioning capabilities that facilitated this integration, and its proven track record, CONTROL-SA from BMC was the optimal healthcare choice for M.D. Anderson."

This also allows technology partners such as Oblix to create a seamless integration with CONTROL-SA that delivers a comprehensive provisioning solution. "BMC's open APIs helped us create an out-of-the-box integrated solution for end-to-end identity management; from Web single sign-on and a rule-based workflow engine, all the way to user provisioning on back-end systems," said Gordon Eubanks, president and CEO, Oblix. "Employees, business partners and customers now have one digital identity, which authenticates them and provides them access to the resources they need when they need them."

BMC Software will continue to enhance this flexibility by working with the leading vendors in this space to define and propagate industry standards such as OASIS Service Provisioning Markup Language (SPML). BMC Software is also committed to supporting newly formed industry standards as they become available as well as maintaining support for current APIs.

"Based on the feedback from our large customer base and our own extensive security management experience, we have enhanced CONTROL-SA in a number of areas, we have made it more flexible, more scalable and easier to use. Our unique architecture allows our customers to easily provision users regardless of enterprise complexity while dramatically reducing their costs and time-to-value," said Raz Nitzan, vice president and General Manager, Security Business Unit, BMC Software. "Many of our customers currently use a combination of identity management and enterprise business applications to achieve an integrated enterprise-wide business-driven process, we want to be sure that we are flexible enough to accommodate their changing needs."

Pricing and Availability
CONTROL-SA is available globally with pricing starting at $78,000 for 1,000 users. The enhancements mentioned in this release are expected to be available by calendar Q3 of this year.

About CONTROL-SA

A centralized user provisioning product, CONTROL-SA allows security administrators to centrally manage and audit user access effectively. CONTROL-SA provides organizations with a secure, efficient and scaleable solution to ensure that employees and business partners have appropriate access to IT resources. For more information on CONTROL-SA visit http://www.bmc.com/solutions/security/.

About BMC Software
BMC Software, Inc. [NYSE:BMC], is a leader in enterprise management. The company focuses on Assuring Business Availability^® for its customers by helping them proactively improve service, reduce costs and increase value to their business. BMC Software solutions span enterprise systems, applications and databases. Founded in 1980, BMC Software has offices worldwide and is a member of the S&P 500, with fiscal year 2002 revenues of approximately $1.3 billion. Visit www.bmc.com to learn more.

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