Ping Identity Drives Business Innovation in the Cloud with OAuth

DENVER--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Ping Identity^®, The Cloud Identity Security Leader™, today announced new product capabilities and services, including the first commercial cloud identity management (CIM) support for OAuth 2.0, which give businesses more effective ways to secure identities while connecting users, partners, customers and applications across cloud, mobile and social networking platforms.

“Whether making it easier for consumers to access websites via social networks, simplifying access to public or private cloud resources, making business accessible to mobile users, or integrating partner applications seamlessly with APIs, companies are innovating and Ping Identity is at the forefront of this new era.”

“Enterprises are reinventing themselves with the Cloud,” said Ping Identity CEO Andre Durand. “Whether making it easier for consumers to access websites via social networks, simplifying access to public or private cloud resources, making business accessible to mobile users, or integrating partner applications seamlessly with APIs, companies are innovating and Ping Identity is at the forefront of this new era.”

PingFederate 6.5, the latest version of Ping Identity’s CIM software, is the industry’s first to support cloud single sign-on (SSO) for native mobile apps and the first to enable Application Program Interface (API) security via the emerging OAuth 2.0 standard. PingFederate 6.5 also introduces a new CloudDesktop capability, providing secure, one-click access to enterprise and commercial applications. New remote administration and partner onboarding program management services further speed business time-to-value.

“Box’s cloud content management solution is embraced by businesses of all sizes because its simple, secure platform can easily extend to a number of devices,” said Box COO Dan Levin. “Whether a user is accessing Box from their desktop, laptop or mobile device, they can count on a secure, seamless experience in part because of PingFederate’s support for standards such as SAML, OpenID and now, OAuth.”

First Cloud Single Sign-On for Native Mobile Apps

The crossover of mobile devices from the consumer world to the enterprise is forcing companies to provide the same secure seamless access to mobile applications that users experience today with a desktop app, web or mobile browser. PingFederate 6.5 is the first cloud identity management solution on the market to support cloud SSO for both web-based (via desktop or mobile browser) and native mobile apps using standard protocols, such as SAML, OpenID and now OAuth 2.0. Native mobile app users first authenticate at an identity provider, such as their employer, giving the application permission to access their data. PingFederate’s OAuth authorization server then issues a security token to the mobile app. When the user launches the app again, the service provider uses the token to authenticate the application and check its authorizations. If the mobile device is lost or stolen the service provider can revoke the token, preventing unauthorized access.

First Commercial OAuth Support for Secure Web APIs

APIs are becoming a de facto requirement for web-based applications in order to support partnerships and application integrations. Whether SOAP- or REST-based, utilized for clients, widgets or plugins, the need to secure the increasing number of transactions via APIs is critical for cloud businesses. PingFederate 6.5 is the first cloud identity management solution on the market to support SOAP- and REST-based APIs using standards such as WS-Trust and now OAuth.

New PingFederate CloudDesktop Simplifies Access to Cloud

Growing numbers of innovative businesses are looking to the Cloud to help them stay connected to their customers, partners and suppliers, delivering anytime, anywhere access to the resources they require. PingFederate CloudDesktop is a web application that gives cloud businesses the ability to support their employees, partners or affiliates with a single point of access to all of their securely federated business applications in a customizable, branded portal that can be launched from the user’s desktop or mobile browser. CloudDesktop leverages configuration information from PingFederate, Active Directory and group-based policy information to determine the applications unique to each user.

New Services Accelerate Cloud Integration

While PingFederate is typically deployed in a fraction of the time required by traditional IAM products, a growing number of cloud business innovators want to free themselves of CIM implementation or administration tasks. New service offerings give businesses the option of letting Ping Identity do the work for them. PingFederate Administration Services provides an expert CIM administrator on an “as needed” basis. This administrator manages the organization’s PingFederate deployment. PingFederate Application Onboarding manages an enterprise’s rollout of PingFederate connections for partners.

New Ping Identity services are available immediately. PingFederate 6.5 will be available in August 2011.

About Ping Identity | The Cloud Identity Security Leader

Ping Identity provides cloud identity security solutions to more than 700 of the world’s largest companies, government organizations and cloud businesses. With a 99% customer satisfaction rating, Ping Identity empowers more than 40 of the Fortune 100 to secure hundreds of millions of employees, customers, consumers and partners using secure, open standards like SAML, OpenID and OAuth. Businesses that depend on the Cloud rely on Ping Identity to deliver simple, proven and secure cloud identity management through single sign-on, federated identity management, mobile identity security, API security, and centralized access control. Visit pingidentity.com for more information.

Supporting Industry Analysts Quotes

Enterprise Strategy Group

“Cloud computing and rapid business adoption of mobile devices is driving new requirements for identity management. Old systems no longer fit the bill, yet businesses don’t have the luxury of ripping and replacing their existing systems,” said Enterprise Strategy Group Senior Principal Analyst Jon Oltsik. “With its latest release of PingFederate, Ping Identity is well-positioned to deliver the proven nexus for simple, secure user access across applications in the Cloud.”

IDC

“Consumerization of IT has created a market need for single sign-on into native and mobile apps,” said Sally Hudson, research director, Cloud Identity at IDC. “PingFederate 6.5 is the first cloud identity management solution that supports cloud SSO for both web-based and native mobile apps using standards such as SAML, OpenID and OAuth 2.0. This standards-based approach will enable users to secure identities across cloud and mobile environments to more efficiently conduct business or transactions.”

Forrester Research

According to independent research firm, Forrester Research, Inc., OAuth will be the incumbent Cloud API security solution by 2012. In a July 2011 report, Protecting Enterprise APIs With A Light Touch, Forrester stated: “Security and risk professionals need to understand OAuth quickly. Even if you’re not exposing APIs of your own yet, your organization will likely be calling others’ OAuth-protected APIs, including SaaS APIs, in the normal course of business soon … Vendors and cloud services are ramping up support fast … [One example is] Ping Identity, which will shortly ship a fully OAuth-enabled STS in its Ping Federate product.”

Gartner

“IdM technologies were designed for a world in which the average person had few electronic identities and used them in few contexts. That world no longer exists,” said Gartner VP Distinguished Analyst Bob Blakely. “In 2011, businesses must start building the bridge between the old push-model identity management architecture and new pull-model systems. OAuth is an important building block in the bridge between the enterprise and new service-oriented identity architecture of the cloud.”