IBM Helps Business Partners Strengthen Client Infrastructures for Looming Government Regulations

IBM Helps Business Partners Strengthen Client Infrastructures for Looming Government Regulations

Today at its PartnerWorld 2007 Conference, IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced a suite of software solutions to support IBM Business Partners in delivering the industry’s broadest portfolio of solutions for today’s growing compliance management market.

Compliance requirements can be driven by government regulations, industry guidelines, business commitments or even internally driven governance initiatives. Controls to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of customer data and applications are frequently a key part of compliance initiatives and must be aimed at prevalent threats. IBM’s Service Management offerings have a strong suite of compliance solutions that help to automate IT controls and then report on the effectiveness of these controls to support compliance initiatives.

“Taking a proactive approach to compliance and governance can give organizations the agility they need to respond to the variety of regulations they face today and in the future,” said Al Zollar, general manager, IBM Software. “IBM’s new compliance program helps provide a centralized and automatic approach to enable clients to effectively control information and rapidly make it available to meet audit requirements.”

IBM is arming its partners with the tools required to better address their customers’ compliance initiatives. With its recent acquisitions of Consul and Internet Security Systems (ISS), IBM is now able to offer the largest breadth of both internal and external security management in the industry today. Instead of taking point products to market that address isolated needs, this new program will help IBM partners address their customers’ needs for a complete compliance management lifecycle.

The program will tie together key steps for partners to create a compliance plan, including collecting information; analyzing this information and its risks; making policy decisions; creating procedures and control decisions based on the policy; and testing those controls to determine the outcomes against policy, including compliance measures. It will then help partners link to the appropriate IBM technology solution.

Read the complete Press Release