GE to deploy Sun’s Identity Manager

General Electric (GE), the manufacturing and services giant, is deploying Sun Java System Identity Manager to provide user authentication for its entire workforce of 450,000 users.

The first of several phases of the platform’s integration into GE will give access to all Sarbanes Oxley level-one applications and platforms within 12 months using the provisioning component of Sun Microsystems' Sun Java Enterprise System.

Tom Sheffield, manager of identity and access management at GE, said the identity management software would enable the group “to get users up and running productively” by letting GE change user access privileges and instantly revoke the accounts of staff when they leave.

Identity Manager will be used to allow GE to manage accounts and access privileges centrally. The software from Sun provides role- and rules-based provisioning which will enable GE to set policies on users, organisations, resources, roles, or groups, which ensures that its corporate security requirements are automatically enforced, Sun said. 

GE’s implementation of Identity Manager is expected to be handled centrally by GE Corporate, which already has Identity Manager up and running. Each of the group’s business units will be individually charged with phasing in the system on time and in accordance with strict guidance from GE headquarters.

Once the system is fully operational, GE expects to be able to manage staff access to any part of its IT infrastructure, based on an individual’s specific job function, geography and role.

Identity Manager supports databases including DB2, SQL Server and Oracle 8i and 9i, ERP systems from SAP and Oracle, e-mail servers such as Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange, plus all the main operating systems, including Windows 2000/2003, AIX, HP-UX, Red Hat and Solaris.