SAP ventures into federated identity management
SAP Ventures, the VC arm of SAP has
joined in the $7.5 million Series B funding of Ping Identity, one of the leading innovators in federated identity management. At this year’s
Digital Identity World 2005 conference, Ping founder
Andre Durand demonstrated the concept of a Security Token Service which underpins the
identity metasystem vision for an interoperable architecture for digital identity.
With identity management being one of the most obvious gaps in SAP’s NetWeaver infrastructure platform proposition this is a smart move by SAP, since it will help it to influence the future direction of Ping. As Durand states in the press release announcing the funding “We expect federation will play a large role in securing cross-company integration of ERP systems, both at an end-user level, and at a web services level. We look forward to working closely with SAP Ventures to ensure that our products and solutions meet the requirements of SAP’s and Ping identity’s customers in the years ahead.”
