The eTrust SiteMinder platform from CA (originally from Netegrity, who was acquired by CA in November, 2004) is a centrally managed access control platform specifically for Web-accessed applications. The platform facilitates single sign-on and federated identities for enterprise employees, customers, and partners across heterogenous Web servers, identity stores (user directories), and application servers.

Key components of an eTrust SiteMinder deployment include the Secure Proxy Server, Web Server Agent, and centralized Policy Server.

When an end user initiates an access request with an eTrust SiteMinder enabled site, either the Web Server Agent or the Secure Proxy Server (depending on the site configuration) gathers the user's credentials and passes them to the central Policy Server. The Policy Server then interacts both with the organization's user stores--supported stores include Sun Java System Directory Server; eDirectory; Active Directory; NT Domains, and more--and with defined access policies, authenticates the user, and assuming all is well, returns user profile and entitlement information which can then be passed to the originally requested application.

Multiple forms of authentication are supported by the platform, including password, forms and/or certificates, two factor tokens, X.509 certificates, smart cards, and biometric devices, to name a few. In the most recent release, SAML (Security Assertions Markup Language) 2.0 for the use of Federated Identity authentication across business domains is supported.

Among the supported Web Servers for the platform are IIS, Sun Java System Web Server and Apache; while supported application servers include BEA WebLogic and IBM WebSphere. Enterprise applications for which single sign-on is supported include Siebel, PeopleSoft, Oracle, and SAP.

eTrust SiteMinder is available now. Visit the CA Web site for further information.