By automating these compliance processes, enterprises can implement sustainable and repeatable practices, which reduce the cost of maintaining compliance, Sun says.
 
Having an integrated identity provisioning and identity auditing capability within a single product, will be ideal for local companies, who often need to combat identity theft on a daily basis, says Mark Ehmke, software sales regional manager at Sun Microsystems SA.
 
Sun Java System Identity Manager 7.0 is designed to combine user provisioning the process of creating, updating, and deleting user access across applications and systems with identity auditing, the process of analysing applications and systems for identity control violations, notifying corporate compliance officers of violations, and addressing policy exceptions.

By combining these capabilities, Sun aims to enable customers to avoid managing two separate processes, bridging the gap between IT security and auditors, internal and external, responsible for compliance with regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley.

The offering is designed to support the Solaris 10 Operating system (OS) and extends its security capabilities. This aims to enable control of identities across the operating system, applications, data and physical locations.
 
Customers need to simplify and automate compliance efforts. These enhancements to Sun's identity management suite make it easier and cheaper for our customers to manage and report compliance with regulatory mandates, says Sara Gates, vice-president of identity and Web services at Sun.
 
With the latest version of Java System Identity Manager, enterprises can check and confirm that identities comply with audit policy before the access is provided, Gates adds. Its identity auditing capabilities include automated reviews and proactive scanning, designed to ensure consistent policy enforcement and repeatable processes.