The New Nation - Internet Edition

IDM solution opens door to the world

Farhan Ibrahim

Organisations across the globe have begun to realise the importance of identify management (IDM) in doing business more efficiently. IDM is no longer just a technology issue; it has become a business issue. With the sharp growth that Bangladeshi companies, especially in industries like financial services, telecom, manufacturing, retail & distribution and IT enabled services are witnessing, they realised they had to open doors to the world while ensuring that the world doesn't walk through them.

It has become necessary for them to securely manage appropriate access to business resources for employees, customers, partners and suppliers. An information security framework or IDM allows them to reduce threats and improve compliance.

Some of the major factors that are driving the growth of identity management solutions in Bangladesh include; Regulatory compliance norms. Today, irrespective of where a company is based, if it does business on a global scale they need to understand the best practices and measures for compliance adopted by companies spread across various geographies. Whether they are component suppliers to the automobile giants, outsourced partners for retail chains or emerging manufacturers setting up projects overseas, knowledge of global compliance norms is becoming an integral part of their competitive DNA. Since a lot of multinational giants have invested in meeting compliance requirements, they would obviously want their business partners - suppliers, collaborators, also to meet with the same kinds of compliance rules, whether those partners are based in the same location or elsewhere across the globe.

Secondly, managing identities. With business growth and expansion/M&A's, companies have to induct/absorb more employees, customers, partners and suppliers into their business process system. This means more identities, roles and transactions, giving rise to security threats that can result from creating an extended network.

Thirdly, access control and compliance management. Nearly every organisation around the world is subject to multiple regulations that mandate different aspects of privacy or accountability. With the maturity of the online world, curbing identity theft and fraud in such an environment has become a big challenge. A growing number of firms are falling victims to information leakage and data theft in the online world. IDM solution has a vital role to play into this matter.

According to industry analysts, the IDM market is expected to increase by more than 4 times to reach approximately US$2.5billion. The public and finance sectors are expected to lead the adoption of IDM worldwide. In answering the major security threats that enterprises at present are facing, enterprises should increasingly take a closer look at their internal operations. Large numbers of security breaches happen from either an employee within the company or by outsiders entering the network to corrupt it. The challenge is to ensure that the right people have appropriate access to the right resources at the right time and to be able to prove it. Also, organizations today face the challenge of protecting confidential personal and business information from unauthorized users.

However, a holistic approach to security can save you money. Companies today are spending 10 times more on compliance projects because they adopt an ad-hoc approach rather than as part of a strategic, proactive compliance program. This approach is costly.

In addition to global regulatory requirements like Basel II, privacy legislation is forcing companies to look at ways to certify data that is held to be compliant to privacy laws. For example, a financial services company in United States managed to reduce their annual costs involved in supporting the identity administration needs of their 2,000 employees by half a million U.S dollars.

Organizations need to protect confidential personal and business information from unauthorized users and ensure that adherence to rules and regulations can always be substantiated. This is where compliance has got a role to play in the identity management sphere.

It is to mention that the IDM solutions have started to gain popularity among a certain section of Bangladeshi enterprises. Organizations from the financial services, telecom, IT enabled services and manufacturing, retail & distribution sectors in Bangladesh will benefit from identity management solutions.

Oracle's Identity Management (IDM) products and solutions are available to Organisations in Bangladesh. Serving as the security backbone for Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Identity Management helps customers and partners decrease security threats across diverse IT environments while helping address governance, risk and compliance needs.

The family of the best-in-class software includes Oracle Identity Manager, Oracle Access Manager, Oracle Adaptive Access Manager, Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Suite, Oracle Identity Federation, Oracle Virtual Directory, Oracle Internet Directory, Oracle Management Pack for Identity Management and Oracle Web Services Manager; all of which can be used in its entirety or as individual components.

Writer is a Sales Leader of Technology Business, Oracle Corporation, South Asia Growth Economies (West).

New Intel Architecture Champions Sub1 Watt x86

Internet

A flurry of announcements and roadmaps from Intel this week shed light on the company's 5.5 Watt Penryn and the 4 Watt Diamondville processors. The company went one step further today, claiming it can get a fairly powerful x86 processor down to 0.6W for ultra mobile devices.

Intel first brought us news of Intel's Silverthorne processor in April of last year. At the time, details were light on the processor and it was just known as a successor to the 90nm Stealey-based A100 and A110 that were introduced at the time.

As the months progressed, more details began to leak out regarding the Menlow platform and the Silverthorne processor. Today, Intel officially pulled the wraps off the Silverthorne processor and the Menlow platform.

Silverthorne, a two-issue processor designed from the ground up, is now known as the Intel Atom processor. Atom processors based on Silverthorne are aimed at Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs).

To confuse matters a bit, Intel's Diamondville processors will also fall under the Intel Atom processor nomenclature. Diamondville-based Atom processors are derived from Silverthorne, feature SMT technology and will be available in both single core and dual core versions. Atom processors based on Diamondville will see duty in low-cost notebooks (known as "netbooks") and desktop computers (also called "nettops").

As previously reported by DailyTech, Diamondville-based Atom processor will fit within a 4W (single core) to 8W (dual core) TDP envelope. The single core, Diamondville-based Atom 230 will launch at 1.6GHz and will feature a 533MHz FSB and 512k of L2 cache. TDP for the Atom 230 is listed at 4W.

Silverthorne-based Atom processors heading for MIDs will have a TDP ranging from 0.6W to 2.5W and will top out at 1.8GHz. Sources inside Intel hint that the 0.6W version of the processor reaches just over 500 MHz.

Anand Lal Shimpi conjectures on the difference between the two cores. "Intel lists the 1.6GHz Diamondville TDP as 4W, a bit higher than what you'll see in MIDs but I'm guessing it'll run at a higher voltage and thus be a higher yielding part that's cheaper to produce, resulting in the higher TDP."

Intel confirms Diamondville will be the first Intel processor to support simultaneous multi-threading (SMT) since the Pentium 4. The entire Silverthorne architecture supports SMT, though Intel has only confirmed Diamondville processors as SMT-enabled at this time.

Intel says that a single Atom processor measures just 25mm2 and contains over 47 million transistors. According to Intel, 11 Atom processors would fit on a penny and it's built on Intel's high-k 45nm manufacturing process.

"This is our smallest processor built with the world's smallest transistors," said Intel's Executive Vice President and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer Sean Maloney. "This small wonder is a fundamental new shift in design, small yet powerful enough to enable a big Internet experience on these new devices. We believe it will unleash new innovation across the industry."

The overall Menlow platform is now known as Intel Centrino Atom. The Intel Centrino Atom platform will include an Intel Atom processor, Intel 945GSE chipset and a wireless radio.

Although Intel expects the bulk of its Atom processors to see duty in MIDs, netbooks and nettops, the company also sees the huge potential for sales in consumer electronic devices, embedded applications and thin clients.

Consumers can expect to see the next generation Eee PC with an Intel Atom processor onboard -- HP may be wise to include an Intel Atom on its 2133 sub-notebook, but rumor has it that the company already decided on a VIA platform.

Daffodil International University orientation for freshers

Spring 2008 orientation program for Business & Economics Faculty, Science & IT Faculty and Faculty of Humanities and Social Science were held recently at the auditorium of Daffodil International University (DIU). All the Spring 2008 new students of were present in the orientation program.

Prof. Dr. Aminul Islam, Vice Chancellor, Daffodil International University presided over the program and Professor M. Shahjahan Mina, Advisor, Faculty of Business & Economics DIU, Professor Dr. Lutfor Rahman, Dean, FSIT, DIU, Prof. Dr. Golam Rahman, Dean, FHSS, DIU, delivered their speeches in the program. Prof. Dr. M. Mizanur Rahman conducted the program.