Identity management: A comparative approach

This paper presents a comparative study of identity management tools, based on the principles of ISO/IEC 9126 standard, which establishes targets to be accomplished in order to obtain quality in software. The products compared in this study are Tivoli Identity Manager, from IBM, and Identity Manager 4 Standard Edition, from NetIQ-Novell. The choice of the products that underwent the evaluation was based on an annual report issued by the research and advisory firm Gartner that classifies the mentioned tools as leaders in the field of software for user administration and provisioning. According to this report, these products enable the authentication and identity management and improve, also, the information security governance. Moreover, the referred tools allow the integration between different applications and technologies. This work compares the software identity management tools mentioned considering aspects related to functionality and reliability.