Sun Teams with SAP to Give Businesses Automated, Continuous Compliance

May 18, 2006
Joint solution combines expertise of Sun Identity Management and SAP GRC
ORLANDO, Fla. - Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW) today announced it is teaming up with SAP to deliver an integrated software solution that will help businesses maintain automated "continuous compliance" with both external government regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and internal corporate security policies.

The new solution combines the Sun Java System Identity Management Suite with SAP's Virsa Access Enforcer. The combination gives businesses a simple, effective way to control which employees have access to specific information stored across a company's entire IT infrastructure, regardless of what type or how many systems are deployed. The solution also allows businesses to identify and prevent real and potential security breaches, and create audits to demonstrate compliance -- all completely automated and all in real-time.

Government regulations and an increasing number of security breaches are forcing companies around the world to know who has access to what information resources, monitor changes in access control, report the results and provide a historical record. The Sun-SAP solution automates those capabilities across the enterprise to help reduce costs, improve business processes and strengthen compliance.

"The choice for companies today is no longer whether to invest in identity management and auditing capabilities," said Sara Gates, vice president of Identity Management at Sun Microsystems. "The choice now is whether to invest in automated, cross-application, cross-platform solutions like the one we have announced today, or to instead invest in an army of expensive IT professionals to independently administer profiles, control access to potentially dozens of systems and conduct audits after serious damage may have already been done."

With SAP's recent acquisition of Virsa, the integrated solution is part of SAP's Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) framework that provides companies with effective governance, comprehensive risk reduction and demonstrable compliance, all at reduced costs.