Safestone Emerges with New Security Products

Published: May 2, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Safestone Technologies next week will begin delivery of AxcessIT version 3.1, a significant new release of its identity management tool suite that supports a range of platforms, including the iSeries. The English software house has kept a low profile for the last few years, but is now starting to stir, and a redesigned Web site and new products are part of that process. A new release of its OS/400 security suite is also on tap for this summer.

SafeStone was formed in 2000 following the acquisition of CCT by SoftScreen. CCT was one of the first software vendors to roll out an application that augmented the built-in security of OS/400, which it called DetectIT, and SoftScreen was its London-based distributor for DetectIT. Following the acquisition of CCT, SoftScreen changed its name to SafeStone. Slightly more than half of its 600 or so DetectIT users are in Europe, while the rest are in North America. The company's American headquarters are in New Wales, Pennsylvania.

When Safestone started developing its new AxcessIT product line in April 2002, the company actively marketed its products.. In October 2002, the company launched DetectIT Self Help, a password synchronization product, one of the first modules of what was to be an 11-module suite, and which today is called the Enterprise Password Management module of the three-part AxcessIT suite. The company followed that up in May 2003, when the company added the AxcessIT Provisioning Manager, which was to be the policy-based backbone of the identity management suite (and which today is the Enterprise Identity Administration component of the AxcessIT suite).

Along the way, the company launched a third component that leverages IBM's Enterprise Identity Mapping (EIM) technology for enabling single sign-on across OS/400, Unix, and z/OS machines, which Safestone calls AxcessIT Single Sign On/EIM Management, or AxcessIT SEM. The IT Jungle completely missed that release, in part because Safestone never brought it to our attention, nor even mentioned it on its Web site, which appeared to languish for many months with nary an update. Same with the OS/400-based add-on modules it developed for security giants Symantec and RSA.

The veil began to lift in mid March, when Safestone launched its new Web site, revealing a veritable treasure trove of information about what the company's R&D department had been up to. "Our marketing has been quiet but we've been continuing to put new products out into the market," confirms John Dominic, Safestone's regional sales manager based in Pennsylvania. R&D is conducted at the company's world headquarters in England.

Some of the other new stuff that Safestone developers have been busy developing, and which is about to ship, can be found in AxcessIT Identity Management version 3.1. AxcessIT gives administrators and managers fine-grain control over the applications and data that users can access. The AxcessIT software runs on Windows, but can support OS/400 and other operating systems. It also features agents for controlling access to certain databases and enterprise applications.

According to Dominic, this release features a completely redesigned GUI that should make it easier for users to get started with the software. The new Java console can be used as either a Web program or as a locally downloaded app, and organizations will be able to customize the look of their programs.

Administrators also gain new functions, such as support for multi-object selections, which should make their lives a little easier. This release also brings the capability to search across any object, including all operations, targets, identities, roles, and administrative units, from a single interface, as well as new audit report capabilities. The de-provisioning process has been streamlined, the company says, and new shortcuts and keyboard navigation have been added.

AxcessIT Identity Management Suite 3.0 reached release candidate stage in February, according to the company's Web site, and will start shipping at the version 3.1 level by the end of this week, Dominic says.

While much of the development work at Safestone is focused on AxcessIT, it's not totally ignoring DetectIT, the OS/400 security suite that brings home the bread while the yeast is still rising on the cross-platform stuff. DetectIT, which is currently at version 11.21, is a mature suite of native OS/400 tools that provide a range of features, including exit point security, auditing, policy and compliance, and intrusion detection, from a 5250 interface or (for some functions) a GUI.

A new release of DetectIT will provide a GUI front-end for the DetectIT Access Control Manager, which it dubs the ACF, to borrow from the mainframe's Access Control Facility. The Access Control Manager allows administrators to grant or deny users access based on a wide range of variables, including success or failure to complete two-factor authentication via RSA's SecureID product. The GUI release of the DetectIT Access Control Manager, which is one of four core modules in the product suite, should be ready by the third quarter, Dominic says.

Beyond these upcoming releases, the company plans to continue executing on its product roadmap. A good portion of this involves taking DetectIT's OS/400 functionality and making this multi-platform through the AxcessIT product suite.

For much more product information, visit www.safestone.com.