Compagnie des Machines Bull SA has announced a joint marketing and co-operative development agreement with Oracle Corp under which Bull will develop security software to provide automatic and transparent authentication for Oracle database users in client-server environments. Bull demonstrated the proposed security capabilities for Oracle’s Secure Network Services software, which will also be integrated and delivered in Bull’s AccessMaster 2.0, the security application within the Integrated System Management suite, at DB Expo. The new features provide centralised administration, management and monitoring of user sign-on access to Oracle databases in a distributed computing environment; mutual authentication between client workstations and the Oracle database server; secure data exchanges between clients and servers, even through non-protected networks such as the Internet; and they prevent unauthorised persons from gaining access to passwords by masquerading as a legitimate server. Bull says AccessMaster solves the problem of multiple passwords with user management based on roles, enabling central administration of hundreds or thousands of distributed users. Sign-on requires one user name and one password to gain access to authorised data on multiple servers; integrated user management maintains centralised control over local networks and network administration functions by specifying user authorisation once, eliminating the need for local database user management, even and especially if several databases are involved; mutual authentication provides sure authentication of both clients and servers; implementation of Generic Security Services Application Programming Interface, GSS-API, for personal computer makes it possible to use Distributed Computing Environment on a personal computer without integrating another interface; secure Network Data Exchange secures data exchanges between an Oracle client station and a server. Pricing of AccessMaster ranges from $100 to $350 per user depending on configuration. Version 2.0 will be available next quarter, free to current customers. And the two companies have also been working to get Bull’s Escala to support Oracle7 Release 7.1 parallel database server software and the Developer 2000 family. This will make Escala the first PowerPC symmetric multiprocessor to do so. The Oracle software is available now on the Escala servers under AIX 4.1.2. Escala with Oracle7 will also be marketed worldwide as a pre-configured database server by both the companies.
