Bridgewater Systems Announces Plans to Help Organizations Realize Web Services-Enabled Strategies in Q1 2002

Bridgewater Systems, a provider of Internet access control software, announced plans to support Web services capabilities and standards in its family of NetProfile access control solutions for carriers and enterprises beginning in the first quarter of 2002

Bridgewater Systems, a provider of Internet access control software, today announced plans to support Web services capabilities and standards in its family of NetProfile access control solutions for carriers and enterprises beginning in the first quarter of 2002.

These new capabilities will enable organizations to solve problems, such as auditing and tracking Web services transactions for incremental business value and new revenue streams. The products will also secure application-to-application" transactions with authentication and authorization that prevent unapproved access to resources. Bridgewater plans to target e-business professionals and Web developers within carriers and enterprises who are evaluating and planning Web services pilots today to generate new services revenue streams and streamline online supply chains.

Deploying Web services in online business supply chains and for application integration across multiple enterprise or carrier networks will help companies obtain revenue streams from for-fee" services such as location-based services and others. In addition, the Web services model of dynamic resource-to-resource interaction promises to increase operational efficiencies by squeezing application time to market, and providing nimble application deployments that fully leverage the dynamic nature of Web-based transactions.

However, according to Russ Freen, vice president of R&D for Bridgewater, A key challenge remains in how to realize business value and incorporate security in this new model of Web-based application-to-application interaction. The ability to track and monetize application-to-application transactions and prevent unauthorized access to an organizations Web services resources are key requirements in realizing these goals."

Bridgewater will leverage its core technology and expertise in providing authentication, authorization and accounting capabilities in mission critical carrier environments to enable these same capabilities in a Web services model. The company has also developed patent-pending technology to support Web services capabilities.

Today, the Web services model doesn't include an inherent capability for end-to-end security," said Jamie Lewis, CEO and Research Chair, The Burton Group. Consequently, enterprise customers must rely on access management systems and other identity and access management infrastructure components to address the security issue. With its strategy, Bridgewater is addressing the need for security for both traditional Web applications and the new generation of Web services."

During the first quarter of 2002, NetProfile will support the following Web services capabilities.

 Ability to capture Web services transaction session details for the purposes of transaction-based billing or charge-backs, which addresses a key issue in how to monetize Web services-based transactions.
 Transaction usage tracking to monitor usage and access to resources as well as the detection and elimination of fraudulent access to an organizations Web services-based resources.
 Support for fine-grained access controls to individual resources based upon HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) header and body.
 Automated discovery of Web services resources, to reduce administration and provide support for dynamic provisioning of Web services.

Following this, the company plans to include support for authentication and authorization based upon other security schemes such as Security Assertions Markup Language (SAML) and Web Services (WS)_security. The strategy includes support for emerging standards and technology such as Web Services Description Language (WSDL) and Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) as these mature.

According to Peter Lindstrom, director of Security Strategies for the Hurwitz Group, Bridgewater's Web services strategy will add the crucial security element that makes Web services viable. The companys solutions extend the concept of access control and demonstrate a way for companies to realize the business value of Web services, by enabling them, for example, to monetize Web services-based transactions."

NetProfile Carrier Edition (CE) for mobile data carriers is the first Bridgewater access control solution targeted to incorporate support for Web services. As a result of first-quarter Web services capabilities, NetProfile CE will support location-based services and inbound/outbound control of simple object access protocol (SOAP) messages.

In addition to NetProfile CE, the company plans to deliver an enterprise access control solution that supports similar Web services capabilities during the first half of 2002.

Freen added, While broad adoption of Web services is predicted in the next 18 months or more, organizations are developing strategies today to incorporate Web services into pilot projects that will occur internally and outside with business partners and customers. A key requirement for offering Web services is how to secure and track and audit access in high transaction environments. Its critical that companies architect their Web services deployments to include security and auditing capabilities -- before they start to build."

For additional information on Bridgewaters Web services strategy, interested parties can obtain a company white paper, Web Services: Access Control Holds the Key to Enabling Widespread Adoption," at www.bridgewatersystems.com/WebServices. The company will be demonstrating its Web services security capabilities at RSA Data Security Conference February 18-22 in San Jose, CA (Booth #644).

About Bridgewater Systems (www.bridgewatersystems.com)
Bridgewater Systems provides access control software to carriers and enterprises that offer Internet-based services to their customers, partners and stakeholders. The company develops highly scalable solutions that enable organizations to differentiate access to wireline and mobile Internet services based on the identity of the user or the application, solving problems such as how to comprehensively account and track for services and prevent unauthorized access. Unlike other Internet access control suppliers, Bridgewater Systems products leverage a centralized point of access control to deliver significant auditing and accounting capabilities and decrease overall cost of ownership. This enables customers to reduce network costs, increase revenues and rapidly deploy new customer-focused services. Founded in 1997, the privately held company's software is licensed by top-tier global service providers, including Qwest Communications, Covad & Verio/NTT