Security in the Cloud Becomes a Reality - Lighthouse Gateway Featured in "Zillion", the International Business Review

3/19/2010

Reprinted with permission from the March issue of Zillion International

One of the most recognized and awarded IBM Premier Business Partners in the USA with annual sales exceeding USD 100 million, Lighthouse Security Group, LLC is a prominent provider of Cloud based Identity and Access Management (IAM) services, offering consulting, integration and maintenance services to a wide range of industry verticals. Lighthouse’s Enterprise Security Solutions Director, Eric Maass, says one of their biggest strengths is that they employ a team of world-class enterprise IT experts with deep industry knowledge, and accomplished experience with IBM and DoD. Mr. Maass also highlights their new website, www.DiscoverLighthouseGateway.com, which explains Lighthouse Gateway’s IAM capabilities and its foundation on IBM’s world-class Tivoli Identity and Access Management software, and which aims to educate the market on what the benefits are of moving IAM to the cloud. “When compared to on-premise solutions, Lighthouse Gateway in the cloud will cost companies 30 to 60 percent less over the first three years of operation. We encourage companies and organisations in need of an IAM solution to explore the site and learn what Lighthouse Gateway has to offer.”

Lighthouse Gateway’s SaaS technologies include comprehensive and intuitive software to provide clients with the ability to manage enterprise security with ease - without the specialized engineering skills typically required for complex security solutions. On average, Lighthouse Gateway will cost an enterprise customer 30 - 60% less over the first three years of operation compared to full ownership costs. In addition to eliminating expenses, enterprises can significantly reduce the time associated with managing security.

In January of this year, Lighthouse Security Group launched a new website, www.DiscoverLighthouseGateway.com, dedicated to helping organizations explore the benefits of Lighthouse Gateway in the cloud. “We felt that there was a need for us to explain what it really means for companies to integrate their physical data into cyberspace,” says Mr. Maass. “A lot of people were initially hesitant to do this, and even while there’s now a much greater level of comfort, there’s still a need to educate the market. A lot of people are interested in cloud computing, but they’re not necessarily educated on the subject. We’re in a very complex area, and our technology is very heavily engrained in a customer’s IT infrastructure. For that reason alone we feel we need to explain how the technology works and what the benefits are to our customers.”

The new website notably points out that 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, explains the website, serves millions of military personnel globally and is the backbone for classified and unclassified applications within finance, medical, logistics, and intelligence arenas. Maass’ IAM concepts and designs were precursors to what is typically referred to today as Cloud Computing.

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 USD 120 million 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 IAM products, and sought a low cost of ownership while delivering best-of-breed technologies in an easy-to-manage, turnkey solution. “We’ve been able to bring in some of the best engineers in the world in this space,” Mr. Maass adds. “That gives us natural market prominence. Most analysts predict that in five years time, 25% of security solutions will be in the cloud, and that that percentage will continue to grow. Lighthouse will continue to offer on-premise security solutions but we believe our cloud business will be increasingly important to our customers. “