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You may have noticed news about Verizon and Novell partnering on a cloud-based security solution a few weeks ago. Thought you might like a little more insight into what's involved in the Verizon/Novell partnership.

A major concern for many companies considering cloud computing options today is around security and authentication. Decision makers want to know how to ensure the integrity of their data and their network while operating in the cloud. And that's true whether you are building a private cloud in-house or using a third-party provider like Verizon. In fact, Verizon announced a service, powered by Novell technology, around security and authentication services due out this summer.

Secure Access From Soup to Nuts

Mona Chadha from Novell's Alliance Marketing team says that this offering includes several key elements from Novell's Identity and Access Management solutions including:

• Web Access Management: Enabling Single Sign on and one point of simplified centralized access
• Identity Federation Allowing users to share information with trusted partners safely and securely
• SSL VPN: Granting secure access to users no matter where they are

Chadha says Novell provides Verizon with a proven player in this area. "As customers move to the cloud, security is a huge concern. We brought an established name and product set in that area," she said. What's more, she adds, Novell products provide four pillars of coverage including "a broad array of capabilities to build, secure, manage and measure the cloud."

She says when you think of cloud management, it helps to think about these four key areas and Novell provides coverage across all of them. These four pillars are also the basis of the emerging market called intelligent workload management. Intelligent Workload Management helps customers optimize, manage and secure their computing resources and workloads across physical, virtual, and cloud environments. In November 2009, Novell announced their strategy to become the leader in IWM. The Verizon collaboration is a good example of Novell delivering on their strategy.

In addition, she says these services can easily be layered onto your existing computing environment and provide enterprise customers with a set of policies and procedures which have been defined based on industry standard best practices. She says this gives customers the ability to sign on, regardless of their system and access the applications they need through a single, secure environment. It gives IT, which has ownership of the system, the ability to manage and monitor this environment more easily.

Relieve Capital Expenditure (Capex) Constraints

Secure Access Services from Verizon makes it easy and cost-effective for enterprises to outsource their infrastructure required to extend and manage user access to cloud-based resources while maintaining control over policies and governance. This new on-demand identity and access management service gives enterprise customers the flexibility to manage their Capex constraints and the control to deliver on their security priorities.

These services offer shorter implementation cycles, lower overall costs in a pay-as-you-go model and easier compliance and reporting capabilities without additional hardware or software, or dedicated IT resources.

As more companies look to the cloud, security is a huge concern, and this offer shows that you can have the advantages of cloud computing and still maintain control of security and authentication.

Disclaimer: As with everything else at Cool Solutions, this content is definitely not supported by Novell (so don't even think of calling Support if you try something and it blows up).

It was contributed by a community member and is published "as is." It seems to have worked for at least one person, and might work for you. But please be sure to test, test, test before you do anything drastic with it.