Security in the cloud is a reality. Our approach has been proven within one of the world’s most demanding IT infrastructures – The US Armed Forces.
Where We Began
The current Enterprise Security Solutions Director at Lighthouse, Eric Z. Maass, was formerly the Chief Security Architect for the U.S. Air Force’s Global Combat Support System (GCSS-AF). Fulfilling this role for Lockheed Martin for over seven years, Maass was responsible for the architecture, design, and lead engineering of the GCSS-AF’s Identity and Access Management (IAM) infrastructure, along with nearly 100 tangential subsystem security services, such as digital signature support, SOA security services, and auditing.
The multi-billion dollar GCSS-AF net-centric infrastructure serves millions of military personnel globally and is the backbone for classified and unclassified applications within finance, medical, logistics, and intelligence arenas. Maass’ Identity and Access Management (IAM) concepts and designs were precursors to what is typically referred to today as Cloud Computing.
Best-of-Breed Technologies
Lockheed Martin awarded Maass the company’s rare top honor, the Lockheed Martin NOVA Award for excellence in advanced engineering. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Accenture, and ComputerWorld were a few of the many organizations to formerly recognize the achievements of the program, especially focusing on the Identity and Access Management (IAM) infrastructure.
After leaving Lockheed to join Lighthouse in late 2007, Maass and several members of his Lockheed team, began working on a concept to commercialize IAM Cloud technology, which would be based upon their nearly seven years of successful experience and leveraging the $120M investment the Air Force had made in this space. Building upon where the Air Force left off, Maass took some of his more aggressive ideas and designs to market with the launch of Lighthouse Gateway, a public cloud computing system for Identity and Access Management. The Lighthouse Gateway team focused on multi-tenancy and governance for matured IBM Tivoli Identity and Access Management (IAM) products, and sought a low cost of ownership while delivering best-of-breed technologies in an easy-to-manage, turnkey solution.
Gateway Success
The initial success of the Gateway team attracted more top talent to Lighthouse, including multiple senior developers of the IBM Tivoli security products. Most notable among these recruits was Anthony Moran, best known for his role as patent-holding Lead Software Architect and Engineer over Tivoli Access Manager and Tivoli Federated Identity Manager.
Commenting on the heritage and revolutionary features of the Lighthouse technology, the former CIO of the U.S Air Force, and current Cyber Security Commission advisor to the President of the United States, John Gilligan said, “The Lighthouse Gateway solution is built on a security model that has been proven in operational use for the U.S. Air Force. Providing this solution as a service permits any organization to maintain a robust security posture, while reducing cost and risk, making it an enormously attractive alternative to conventional approaches.”
