The solution is one of the first pieces of HP's new security strategy, a plan that comprises offerings in trustworthy systems, proactive security management and identity management.

Like many of its competitors, HP sees security as a key revenue opportunity in an IT marketplace that is just now pulling out of a years-long nosedive.

Virtually every aspect of the security industry is growing at a solid rate, and big players such as Sun Microsystems Inc., IBM, Novell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. have begun devoting more and more of their resources to security solutions and services.

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Two new security services from HP automate threat prevention. Click here to read more.

All of these vendors have zeroed in on identity management as an important area within the security world. HP is a bit late getting to the table, as Sun, Novell and Microsoft, along with a slew of smaller vendors, have all defined their strategies and most have had products on the market for some time.

Until now, HP's OpenView Select Access, a single sign-on solution that it also obtained through an acquisition, has been the company's main offering in this area, apart from joint solutions with its myriad partners.

Select Identity, which will be integrated with Select Access, is designed to automate the tasks of setting up and managing user accounts and permissions. From a Web-based GUI, administrators can set up user accounts using predefined business roles and can quickly make changes based on changes inside the organization.

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The software also lets customers define user attributes at a very granular level, including the ability to specify valid characters and the length of each attribute in a profile.

"This fits nicely into our adaptive enterprise strategy. Identity management plays a core role there," said Tony Redmond, vice president and chief technology officer of HP Services at HP, based in Palo Alto, Calif.

HP obtained the Select Identity technology through its purchase of TruLogica Inc. in March. TruLogica's approach to identity management was somewhat distinct from most of the other products on the market, in that its software uses each customer's business as a template for defining users' rights and permissions.

OpenView Select Identity is available now.

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