Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) has agreed to buy identify management software maker Trustgenix for an undisclosed sum, the company announced Wednesday.
Trustgenix's technology is already closely linked with HP. HP's OpenView Select Federation product is built around software licensed from Trustgenix. The product lets companies use Web single-sign-on and cross-domain identity management features to more tightly integrate with partners' systems. When a user navigates through different sites belonging to the same federation, Select Federation recognizes the user and accommodates their identity-based preferences and permissions.
Based in Santa Clara, California, 3-year-old, privately held Trustgenix is a Liberty Alliance participant that aims to support the widest array of federation standards. Its software is compliant with, among others, SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) 1.1 and 1.0, WS-Federation and several specifications from Liberty, which is developing open standards for sharing network identities.
HP, with headquarters in Palo Alto, California, expects its Trustgenix acquisition to close within 30 days. HP's other recent purchases include IT service and asset management software maker Peregrine Systems, for US$425 million, and storage area network and resource management vendor AppIQ, for an undisclosed sum.