AI
Wednesday, December 19, 2007 11:51:16 PM
ACI Worldwide Announces Wholesale Payments System for SEPA
http://www.aciworldwide.com/NewsAndEvents/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=461&t=Archive
Product Addresses Pan-European Infrastructure Initiative, Exceeds Processing Goals During Proof of Concept Testing
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
(Omaha, Neb. – 19 April, 2006) – ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: TSAI), a leading international provider of software for electronic payment systems, today announced the ACI Wholesale Payments System™ for SEPA, a global payments processing engine that supports processing for prieuro, credeuro and Pan-European direct debits as well as country-specific formats. As banks in Europe prepare to transition to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), ACI Wholesale Payments System offers these institutions high-throughput capabilities in support of SEPA and other global and cross-border ACH requirements, as confirmed by a benchmark study completed by ACI. Having recently hosted an industry workshop to discuss the impact SEPA will have on payment operations in Europe, ACI continues to drive both product innovation and industry dialogue around the SEPA initiative.
The SEPA initiative for a Pan-European infrastructure envisages the creation of a euro area in which all payments are domestic, where the current differentiation between national and cross-border payments no longer exists. The SEPA project not only aims to improve the efficiency of cross-border payments but also aims to develop common instruments, standards, procedures and infrastructures to foster substantial economies of scale. As a result, payment banks throughout the Eurozone will need to invest in technology with the capacity to support high-volume SEPA transactions by 2010.
With expanded ACH processing capabilities, the ACI Wholesale Payments System for SEPA offers an integrated solution for domestic and international payments that supports the high-throughput capabilities needed for this initiative. As the back office processing engine, the Wholesale Payments System for SEPA supports payment capture, enrichment, routing and settlement of bulk and individual real-time payments in a variety of configurations. Various aspects of processing – including funds control, risk and approval, foreign exchange rate calculations, black-list checking, and liquidity control – are managed as a set of services in a workflow configured by the financial institution. In addition, the solution assists with the transition from a country-specific ACH environment to an environment where one or many Pan-European Automated Clearing Houses (PE-ACHs) exist.
“It is unlikely that all traffic – created as a result of the SEPA initiative – can be migrated in a single phase,” said Anthony Smith, chief technical officer for wholesale payments at ACI. “Rather, there will be a time when old and new systems must coexist, and customer service cannot suffer. The ACI Wholesale Payments System for SEPA is designed to accommodate the transition period by interoperating with legacy formats and systems.”
To validate the performance and scalability of the new ACH processing capabilities within the Wholesale Payments System for SEPA, ACI recently concluded a proof of concept benchmark study at IBM’s Innovation Center in Waltham, Mass. The goal of the benchmark project was to prove that the solution’s architecture and payment flow support the throughput capabilities required for high-volume ACH payments based on actual processing scenarios. The study successfully achieved sustained rates of more than 3.7 million payments per hour, well in excess of the stated goal.
“We are very excited about the results of this study as further validation of ACI’s ability to offer a robust yet flexible solution that will accommodate the changing business requirements expected as the SEPA landscape evolves,” said Mark Vipond, president of the product division at ACI.
The SEPA solution and proof of concept study were featured topics of a SEPA workshop hosted by ACI in Brussels, Belgium, in March. A select group of senior level business professionals from major European banks plus such organizations as Wachovia Bank and Capgemini participated in an open forum to discuss challenges that the SEPA evolution presents, ways to effectively manage the transition, and architectural approaches to achieving SEPA compliance. Additional key discussion points included the impacts of SEPA opportunities and challenges for financial institutions as well as the estimated impact on payment revenues in the Eurozone. The attendees determined that merely being SEPA compliant will not be enough, as cost reductions will not cover the combined effect of SEPA investment and revenue losses. “Due to the massive impact of SEPA changes, banks have to reconsider their in/outsourcing strategy to mitigate negative cost effects,” said Robert van Bergen, senior consultant at Capgemini.
“SEPA is a dynamic and complex event for any player operating in Europe,” said Alison McConnell, assistant vice president and product manager of international treasury services at Wachovia Bank. “A workshop such as this one sponsored by ACI is extremely useful to help frame the issues and enable open discussion on practical strategies to be considered.”
“ACI’s proactive approach to a flexible solution for the SEPA transition underscores our commitment to serving as a trusted business partner for financial institutions worldwide,” said Paul Styles, EMEA market development manager for ACI.
About ACI Worldwide
Every second of every day, ACI solutions are at work processing electronic payments, managing risk, automating back office systems and providing application infrastructure services. Founded in 1975, ACI is a leading international provider of solutions for consumer and wholesale banking, retail and cross-industry systems. ACI serves more than 800 customers in 83 countries including many of the world's largest financial institutions, retailers and payment processors. Visit ACI Worldwide on the Internet at www.aciworldwide.com.
===========
IBM and ACI Forge Global Strategic Alliance
http://www.aciworldwide.com/newsandevents/newsdetail.aspx?nID=606
Deliver Integrated Electronic Payment Solutions for the Financial Services Industry
Monday, December 17, 2007
(An IBM Release)
NEW YORK, N.Y. – 17 Dec 2007: IBM (NYSE: IBM) and ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW) today announced a significantly expanded strategic alliance to create an end-to-end solution for electronic payments powered by IBM’s open technology. As part of the alliance, ACI will optimize a new generation of payment solutions on the IBM System z platform including IBM DB2, WebSphere, and Tivoli software and Crypto-chip technology. The optimization supports the convergence of retail and wholesale payments through the use of service oriented architecture (SOA) including IBM’s Payments Framework.
ACI will further enhance its leading Money Transfer System and BASE24-eps payment solutions to take full advantage of IBM hardware, software and services. IBM will provide ACI with technical staff and laboratory support for benchmarking and performance tuning its payments software. The companies will create a worldwide team of sales and technical specialists dedicated to selling ACI solutions on System z, including IBM “migration factory” services that provide clients with trained staff and IT tools to simplify migrations from legacy payments systems. In addition, ACI plans to use IBM data centers globally to host its integrated software, allowing clients to access ACI payments solutions on demand for those who prefer a hosted versus in-house managed system.
The alliance is aimed primarily at the financial services industry. IBM is a leading technology and services provider in financial services while ACI counts more than 110 of the world’s top 500 banks as its customers. Banks in particular are struggling to manage aging payments systems running on disparate platforms that are siloed and expensive to maintain. For example, a typical large bank can have multiple wholesale and retail payments systems that are not integrated and serve only specific lines of business. ACI payments software running on System z provides an SOA foundation that opens up disparate payments information to be shared across the enterprise in support of multiple software applications and lines of business. In addition to benefiting from the SOA approach, ACI clients that bring their payment transaction traffic to the System z platform can also take advantage of industry leading security, reliability and availability, and help reduce power consumption and maintenance costs through server consolidation.
“Financial services companies are looking for new ways to modernize outdated payments systems due to increasing transaction volumes and regulatory and IT cost pressures,” said June Yee Felix, general manager of banking solutions and strategy, IBM. “Payments systems running on IBM System z and ACI payments software address these issues and provide our joint clients with world-class transaction processing performance and the flexibility of SOA through next generation mainframe technology.”
The IBM/ACI alliance is also designed to yield solutions for retailers who require highly available, scalable solutions for payment authentication, switching and loss prevention. El Corte Ingles, the largest retailer in Spain with over 30,000 point of sale terminals serving more than 9 million cards, is implementing ACI’s BASE24-eps software on System z to process in-store payments initiated with their private label card as well as all major brands of international bank cards. El Corte Ingles selected ACI's software on System z as a robust, secure, highly scalable and reliable platform necessary for a retailer to provide the best possible service to its growing client base in Spain and Europe. The close cooperation between ACI and IBM has allowed El Corte Ingles an extremely smooth implementation process.
Phase one of the alliance will yield an optimized version of ACI’s BASE24-eps software on System z to acquire, route and authorize payments online; a wholesale payments solution to help clients meet the needs of pending Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) regulations; and a solution for real-time fraud detection across the enterprise. Subsequent phases will see solutions optimized on System z for dispute management, smart card management, online banking and trade finance, and will see the companies offer a broad payment hub solution that exploits the IBM Payments Framework and its SOA foundation for payments processing.
Today’s announcement represents a significant commitment to providing clients with open standards-based solutions that will allow them to leverage their existing IT assets, lower costs and increase flexibility. Building on its existing successful relationship, the strategic alliance tightens the integration between IBM and ACI across all areas including software, hardware, services, marketing, and joint product development.
“Our alliance with IBM signals a strategic repositioning of ACI to focus on solutions that offer an end-to-end framework for integrated payments,” said Philip Heasley, CEO of ACI. “IBM’s capital, both economic and intellectual, will help us accelerate the availability of our integrated payments framework and make it available on what is already the platform of choice for a majority of the world’s banks. Together we will offer a unique payments solution differentiated by its low cost of ownership, improved risk management, and comprehensive architecture for improving payments productivity.”
About ACI Worldwide
Every second of every day, ACI Worldwide solutions are at work processing electronic payments, managing risk, automating back office systems and providing application infrastructure services. ACI is a leading international provider of solutions for banking, retail and cross-industry systems. The company serves more than 800 customers in 84 countries including many of the world’s largest financial institutions, retailers and payment processors. Visit ACI Worldwide at www.aciworldwide.com.
IBM SOA Foundation
The SOA Foundation is an integrated, open set of software, best practices, and patterns that provide what customers need to get started with SOA. For more information, visit http://www-304.ibm.com/jct09002c/isv/soa/found_intro.html.
For more information on IBM Banking Solutions, visit www.ibm.com/banking, and for IBM PartnerWorld, visit www.ibm.com/partnerworld.
==================================
WebSphere Transformation Extender Pack for Single Euro Payments Area
(SEPA) is a new pack introduced to help banks and financial institutions
meet their compliance obligations to the European Union initiative to have a
pan-European electronic payments infrastructure. It includes templates for
SEPA credit transfers and direct debits, mapping between SEPA and SWIFT
message type103, as well as validation for European Payment Councils
SEPA-implementation guidelines.
==================================
IBM SOA Foundation: An architectural introduction and overview
This paper introduces the SOA Foundation as defined by IBM and explains IBM's view of what Service-Oriented Architecture is about. It also provides a high-level description of the architecture with a focus on its lifecycle model, logical architecture, programming model, and physical architecture. It goes on to provide some insight to the roadmaps for becoming a SOA-enabled enterprise and the role of SOA Governance in making SOA operational in your enterprise. It also acts as a guide to a wealth of SOA-related resources.
The primary goal of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is to align the business world with the world of information technology (IT) in a way that makes both more effective. SOA is a bridge that creates a symbiotic and synergistic relationship between the two that is more powerful and valuable than anything that we've experienced in the past. Moreover, SOA is about the business results that can be achieved from having better alignment between the business and IT. This paper explains the IBM SOA Foundation and the variety of resources available to developers and architects who are interested in designing and implementing SOA.
==================================
Trusted Computing Solutions Are Available Today to Protect the High Value Digital Transactions Associated With Emerging Web Services
http://www.wave.com/news/press_archive/05/050214_RSA2.html
Lee, MA – February 14, 2005 — Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ:WAVX) today announced that Lark Allen, executive vice president, business development, will present “Trusted Computing, Identity Management and Web Services, the Next Generation of the Internet”, Session IAM-101 of the Identity and Access Management Track at the RSA 2005 Conference at the Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA. Allen's presentation, sponsored by the Trusted Computing Group, will be on Feb. 15 at 2:00pm in the Esplanage Room in the South Hall.
Allen's presentation will show how trusted computing, using industry-standard security chip technology to defend the computing platform against software-based attacks, promises to make the internet safer terrain for enterprises, government and individuals ready to engage in high value digital transactions.
“In order for the promise of higher value digital transactions on the Internet to be realized, you need a range of capabilities to be present, all of which readily available today from vendors selling trusted computer solutions,” Allen said. “With millions of PCs now shipped by industry with Trusted Computing Group-compatible security chips called Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs), we now have the basis for widespread trustworthiness of computer platforms.
“Building a network of trusted devices can dramatically enhance the privacy and security of existing and future web services,” Allen said. “The productivity gains that the internet can deliver have been hampered by poor security and the inconvenience to users. Today's internet is a patchwork of solutions that lack interoperability. Trusted computing is expected to provide the foundation for a common root of trust for business and consumer Interactions on the internet.”
==================================
Wave Systems Announces Secure Services Support For IBM ThinkPad Notebooks and NetVista Desktops
Business Wire, April 10, 2003
RSA Conference 2003
Booth 1612
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 10, 2003
Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ:WAVX)
-- The Industry's First Trust Infrastructure Services for TCG
Platforms Using EMBASSY(R) Trust Services to be Demonstrated
at RSA Conference 2003
Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ:WAVX), a leader in delivering trusted computing applications and services with advanced products, infrastructure and solutions across multiple trusted platforms, announced it will demonstrate EMBASSY(R) Trust Services for Trusted Computing Group (TCG) platforms working with IBM's Embedded Security Subsystem V2.0 on IBM ThinkPad notebooks and NetVista desktops at the RSA Conference 2003.
Based on industry standards, the IBM Embedded Security Subsystem uses encryption keys and processes to help secure data, communications and identity. It consists of both a hardware component, the cryptographic security chip, which supports key storage, privacy encryption and digital signatures for authentication of identity, and a downloadable software component, Client Security Software, which interfaces to the user and to other software applications. Because critical security functions take place within the protected environment of the chip, the system is inherently more secure than software-only solutions.
Wave's ETS software solutions are designed to be compliant with the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) specifications. The computer industry has shipped millions of PCs embedded with a TCG-standard chip, called the Trusted Platform Module. Wave has designed its secure business productivity software to work with all TCG-compliant TPMs commercially available.
More information about EMBASSY Trust Suite products is available through Wave Systems at www.wave.com.
==================================
Federated Identity Management and Web Services Security with IBM Tivoli Security Solutions
IBM WebSphere Application Server V6.1 Security Handbook
Develop and Deploy a Secure Portal Solution Using WebSphere Portal V5 and Tivoli Access Manager V5.1
Enterprise Security Architecture Using IBM Tivoli Security Solutions
Today, companies have no way to trust identities belonging to their partners, suppliers, contracts and their outsourcers. This lack of trust means companies end-up creating online identities (and passwords) for all users. This approach is very costly, inefficient, and creates user frustration with multiple accounts and registrations for each Web Site. Federation is the set of business and technology agreements as well as policies that enable companies to optimally pursue business automation goals that best align with their business model, IT policies, security and privacy goals and requirements.
This book takes a close look at the trust infrastructure over which business federations are implemented. We cover important aspects of utilizing the Tivoli integrated identity management architecture in order to build and deploy the Tivoli Federated Identity Management and Web Services Security components, which consist of Tivoli Federated Identity Manager, IBM WebSphere Application Server, and the IBM Integrated Solutions Console.
This book is a valuable resource for security officers, administrators and architects who wish to understand and implement Web Services security and federated identity management.
===================================
The Embedded Security Subsystem
The Embedded Security Subsystem is a chip on the ThinkPads mainboard that can take care of certain security related tasks conforming to the TCPA standard. It was first introduced among the T23 models and is now under the name Embedded Security Subsystem 2.0 an integral part of most of the modern ThinkPads. The functions of the chip are fall into three main groups:
The purpose of the whole thing is to keep the user's sensitive data out of range from software based attacks (like viruses, internet attacks etc.). One way the chip offers to achieve this is by providing storage for keys along with the neccessary functions to handle them within itself, so that a for example a private key never has to leave the chip (can't be seen by any piece of software). Besides this, there are more complex topics covered by the functionality of the chip. If you want to find out more about it you can find good documents on the IBM Research TCPA resources
===================================
Wave Systems Makes Enterprise Applications
More Secure Than Ever
IBM's Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Program Helps Wave Systems Create More Secure Applications for the Enterprise User
Lee, MA - Aug. 4, 2003 – Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: WAVX – www.wave.com) today announced that the new Document Manager Vault and SmartSignature security software applications in Wave's EMBASSY® Trust Suite client software family work with the IBM (NYSE:IBM) Embedded Security Subsystem, a hardware and software-based security solution available on select ThinkPad notebooks and ThinkCentre desktops, to create more secure applications for the business user.
The compatibility of Wave's security software applications with IBM's hardware and software security solution is a result of Wave's successful participation in IBM's Independent Software Vendor program. This partnership is another example of IBM's commitment to help independent software vendors use IBM's hardware and software-based security system to make computing as secure as possible for the end-user.
"The early stages of any emerging market are critical. IBM has clearly established their leadership in trusted computing with their family of Embedded Security System personal computers," said Lark Allen, executive vice president, Wave Systems. "Wave's partnership with IBM will significantly help us in our objective to deliver open and interoperable solutions to business customers as trusted computing continues to evolve." Leveraging the IBM security chip for personal computers, the Wave EMBASSY Trust Suite Client Business Edition includes the first of many new applications aimed at business users: Wave's Document Manager Vault and SmartSignature. Wave's EMBASSY Trust Suite represents one of the first portfolios of user software applications, administrative tools, and trust-based systems developed specifically around the new Trusted Computing Group (TCG) specification.
Wave's Document Manager Vault application offers a user-controlled vault for storage of private data, such as encrypted files and folders on personal computers. Document Manager Vault offers the choice of a simple drag-and-drop mechanism, as well as a set of integrated plug-ins for popular office tools to encrypt and decrypt any type of file on a local PC. By using IBM's Embedded Security Subsystem in conjunction with Document Manager Vault, sensitive data is protected even if the PC is lost or stolen.
SmartSignature is the digital signing portion of Wave's eSign Transaction Management Suite - a complete document signing and management solution, which complies with ESIGN, HIPAA and UETA legislation that sets standards for electronic legal contracts. SmartSignature uses the IBM Embedded Security Subsystem to protect the user's identity credentials and provide trusted document signing capabilities.
For instance, a human resources department can create and distribute e-forms (i.e. beneficiary change forms for group life insurance), which can then be digitally signed by employees, automatically forwarded for additional approvals or processing, and then archived in a secure back-end vault. Also, if the employee's PC is lost or stolen, the information is still encrypted and protected on the hard disk.
Industry Leadership and Expertise
IBM is a founding member of the Trusted Computing Group, which is committed to industry-wide security initiatives that create additional privacy, trust and confidence in computing. IBM was the first in the industry to ship PCs compliant with TCG's standards-based security architecture. Since IBM began shipping personal computers equipped with embedded security almost four years ago, IBM has received numerous patents for security technologies, listened to thousands of customers and been involved in the creation of industry standards organizations for security. IBM has determined that the network infrastructure is at risk if end-user PCs are not protected. The PC is the first point of entry to the network infrastructure. If those machines are not secure, the network is easily accessible and data and intellectual capital is at risk.
The IBM Embedded Security Subsystem is an example of IBM's ThinkVantage Technologies, a set of tools designed to help customers reduce their IT costs. ThinkVantage Technologies help customers manage their networks, secure their information assets, and simplify wireless deployment.
More information on Wave Systems' suite of EMBASSY services is available at www.wave.com.
===================================
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http://www.aciworldwide.com/NewsAndEvents/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=461&t=Archive
Product Addresses Pan-European Infrastructure Initiative, Exceeds Processing Goals During Proof of Concept Testing
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
(Omaha, Neb. – 19 April, 2006) – ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: TSAI), a leading international provider of software for electronic payment systems, today announced the ACI Wholesale Payments System™ for SEPA, a global payments processing engine that supports processing for prieuro, credeuro and Pan-European direct debits as well as country-specific formats. As banks in Europe prepare to transition to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), ACI Wholesale Payments System offers these institutions high-throughput capabilities in support of SEPA and other global and cross-border ACH requirements, as confirmed by a benchmark study completed by ACI. Having recently hosted an industry workshop to discuss the impact SEPA will have on payment operations in Europe, ACI continues to drive both product innovation and industry dialogue around the SEPA initiative.
The SEPA initiative for a Pan-European infrastructure envisages the creation of a euro area in which all payments are domestic, where the current differentiation between national and cross-border payments no longer exists. The SEPA project not only aims to improve the efficiency of cross-border payments but also aims to develop common instruments, standards, procedures and infrastructures to foster substantial economies of scale. As a result, payment banks throughout the Eurozone will need to invest in technology with the capacity to support high-volume SEPA transactions by 2010.
With expanded ACH processing capabilities, the ACI Wholesale Payments System for SEPA offers an integrated solution for domestic and international payments that supports the high-throughput capabilities needed for this initiative. As the back office processing engine, the Wholesale Payments System for SEPA supports payment capture, enrichment, routing and settlement of bulk and individual real-time payments in a variety of configurations. Various aspects of processing – including funds control, risk and approval, foreign exchange rate calculations, black-list checking, and liquidity control – are managed as a set of services in a workflow configured by the financial institution. In addition, the solution assists with the transition from a country-specific ACH environment to an environment where one or many Pan-European Automated Clearing Houses (PE-ACHs) exist.
“It is unlikely that all traffic – created as a result of the SEPA initiative – can be migrated in a single phase,” said Anthony Smith, chief technical officer for wholesale payments at ACI. “Rather, there will be a time when old and new systems must coexist, and customer service cannot suffer. The ACI Wholesale Payments System for SEPA is designed to accommodate the transition period by interoperating with legacy formats and systems.”
To validate the performance and scalability of the new ACH processing capabilities within the Wholesale Payments System for SEPA, ACI recently concluded a proof of concept benchmark study at IBM’s Innovation Center in Waltham, Mass. The goal of the benchmark project was to prove that the solution’s architecture and payment flow support the throughput capabilities required for high-volume ACH payments based on actual processing scenarios. The study successfully achieved sustained rates of more than 3.7 million payments per hour, well in excess of the stated goal.
“We are very excited about the results of this study as further validation of ACI’s ability to offer a robust yet flexible solution that will accommodate the changing business requirements expected as the SEPA landscape evolves,” said Mark Vipond, president of the product division at ACI.
The SEPA solution and proof of concept study were featured topics of a SEPA workshop hosted by ACI in Brussels, Belgium, in March. A select group of senior level business professionals from major European banks plus such organizations as Wachovia Bank and Capgemini participated in an open forum to discuss challenges that the SEPA evolution presents, ways to effectively manage the transition, and architectural approaches to achieving SEPA compliance. Additional key discussion points included the impacts of SEPA opportunities and challenges for financial institutions as well as the estimated impact on payment revenues in the Eurozone. The attendees determined that merely being SEPA compliant will not be enough, as cost reductions will not cover the combined effect of SEPA investment and revenue losses. “Due to the massive impact of SEPA changes, banks have to reconsider their in/outsourcing strategy to mitigate negative cost effects,” said Robert van Bergen, senior consultant at Capgemini.
“SEPA is a dynamic and complex event for any player operating in Europe,” said Alison McConnell, assistant vice president and product manager of international treasury services at Wachovia Bank. “A workshop such as this one sponsored by ACI is extremely useful to help frame the issues and enable open discussion on practical strategies to be considered.”
“ACI’s proactive approach to a flexible solution for the SEPA transition underscores our commitment to serving as a trusted business partner for financial institutions worldwide,” said Paul Styles, EMEA market development manager for ACI.
About ACI Worldwide
Every second of every day, ACI solutions are at work processing electronic payments, managing risk, automating back office systems and providing application infrastructure services. Founded in 1975, ACI is a leading international provider of solutions for consumer and wholesale banking, retail and cross-industry systems. ACI serves more than 800 customers in 83 countries including many of the world's largest financial institutions, retailers and payment processors. Visit ACI Worldwide on the Internet at www.aciworldwide.com.
===========
IBM and ACI Forge Global Strategic Alliance
http://www.aciworldwide.com/newsandevents/newsdetail.aspx?nID=606
Deliver Integrated Electronic Payment Solutions for the Financial Services Industry
Monday, December 17, 2007
(An IBM Release)
NEW YORK, N.Y. – 17 Dec 2007: IBM (NYSE: IBM) and ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW) today announced a significantly expanded strategic alliance to create an end-to-end solution for electronic payments powered by IBM’s open technology. As part of the alliance, ACI will optimize a new generation of payment solutions on the IBM System z platform including IBM DB2, WebSphere, and Tivoli software and Crypto-chip technology. The optimization supports the convergence of retail and wholesale payments through the use of service oriented architecture (SOA) including IBM’s Payments Framework.
ACI will further enhance its leading Money Transfer System and BASE24-eps payment solutions to take full advantage of IBM hardware, software and services. IBM will provide ACI with technical staff and laboratory support for benchmarking and performance tuning its payments software. The companies will create a worldwide team of sales and technical specialists dedicated to selling ACI solutions on System z, including IBM “migration factory” services that provide clients with trained staff and IT tools to simplify migrations from legacy payments systems. In addition, ACI plans to use IBM data centers globally to host its integrated software, allowing clients to access ACI payments solutions on demand for those who prefer a hosted versus in-house managed system.
The alliance is aimed primarily at the financial services industry. IBM is a leading technology and services provider in financial services while ACI counts more than 110 of the world’s top 500 banks as its customers. Banks in particular are struggling to manage aging payments systems running on disparate platforms that are siloed and expensive to maintain. For example, a typical large bank can have multiple wholesale and retail payments systems that are not integrated and serve only specific lines of business. ACI payments software running on System z provides an SOA foundation that opens up disparate payments information to be shared across the enterprise in support of multiple software applications and lines of business. In addition to benefiting from the SOA approach, ACI clients that bring their payment transaction traffic to the System z platform can also take advantage of industry leading security, reliability and availability, and help reduce power consumption and maintenance costs through server consolidation.
“Financial services companies are looking for new ways to modernize outdated payments systems due to increasing transaction volumes and regulatory and IT cost pressures,” said June Yee Felix, general manager of banking solutions and strategy, IBM. “Payments systems running on IBM System z and ACI payments software address these issues and provide our joint clients with world-class transaction processing performance and the flexibility of SOA through next generation mainframe technology.”
The IBM/ACI alliance is also designed to yield solutions for retailers who require highly available, scalable solutions for payment authentication, switching and loss prevention. El Corte Ingles, the largest retailer in Spain with over 30,000 point of sale terminals serving more than 9 million cards, is implementing ACI’s BASE24-eps software on System z to process in-store payments initiated with their private label card as well as all major brands of international bank cards. El Corte Ingles selected ACI's software on System z as a robust, secure, highly scalable and reliable platform necessary for a retailer to provide the best possible service to its growing client base in Spain and Europe. The close cooperation between ACI and IBM has allowed El Corte Ingles an extremely smooth implementation process.
Phase one of the alliance will yield an optimized version of ACI’s BASE24-eps software on System z to acquire, route and authorize payments online; a wholesale payments solution to help clients meet the needs of pending Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) regulations; and a solution for real-time fraud detection across the enterprise. Subsequent phases will see solutions optimized on System z for dispute management, smart card management, online banking and trade finance, and will see the companies offer a broad payment hub solution that exploits the IBM Payments Framework and its SOA foundation for payments processing.
Today’s announcement represents a significant commitment to providing clients with open standards-based solutions that will allow them to leverage their existing IT assets, lower costs and increase flexibility. Building on its existing successful relationship, the strategic alliance tightens the integration between IBM and ACI across all areas including software, hardware, services, marketing, and joint product development.
“Our alliance with IBM signals a strategic repositioning of ACI to focus on solutions that offer an end-to-end framework for integrated payments,” said Philip Heasley, CEO of ACI. “IBM’s capital, both economic and intellectual, will help us accelerate the availability of our integrated payments framework and make it available on what is already the platform of choice for a majority of the world’s banks. Together we will offer a unique payments solution differentiated by its low cost of ownership, improved risk management, and comprehensive architecture for improving payments productivity.”
About ACI Worldwide
Every second of every day, ACI Worldwide solutions are at work processing electronic payments, managing risk, automating back office systems and providing application infrastructure services. ACI is a leading international provider of solutions for banking, retail and cross-industry systems. The company serves more than 800 customers in 84 countries including many of the world’s largest financial institutions, retailers and payment processors. Visit ACI Worldwide at www.aciworldwide.com.
IBM SOA Foundation
The SOA Foundation is an integrated, open set of software, best practices, and patterns that provide what customers need to get started with SOA. For more information, visit http://www-304.ibm.com/jct09002c/isv/soa/found_intro.html.
For more information on IBM Banking Solutions, visit www.ibm.com/banking, and for IBM PartnerWorld, visit www.ibm.com/partnerworld.
==================================
WebSphere Transformation Extender Pack for Single Euro Payments Area
(SEPA) is a new pack introduced to help banks and financial institutions
meet their compliance obligations to the European Union initiative to have a
pan-European electronic payments infrastructure. It includes templates for
SEPA credit transfers and direct debits, mapping between SEPA and SWIFT
message type103, as well as validation for European Payment Councils
SEPA-implementation guidelines.
==================================
IBM SOA Foundation: An architectural introduction and overview
This paper introduces the SOA Foundation as defined by IBM and explains IBM's view of what Service-Oriented Architecture is about. It also provides a high-level description of the architecture with a focus on its lifecycle model, logical architecture, programming model, and physical architecture. It goes on to provide some insight to the roadmaps for becoming a SOA-enabled enterprise and the role of SOA Governance in making SOA operational in your enterprise. It also acts as a guide to a wealth of SOA-related resources.
The primary goal of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is to align the business world with the world of information technology (IT) in a way that makes both more effective. SOA is a bridge that creates a symbiotic and synergistic relationship between the two that is more powerful and valuable than anything that we've experienced in the past. Moreover, SOA is about the business results that can be achieved from having better alignment between the business and IT. This paper explains the IBM SOA Foundation and the variety of resources available to developers and architects who are interested in designing and implementing SOA.
==================================
Trusted Computing Solutions Are Available Today to Protect the High Value Digital Transactions Associated With Emerging Web Services
http://www.wave.com/news/press_archive/05/050214_RSA2.html
Lee, MA – February 14, 2005 — Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ:WAVX) today announced that Lark Allen, executive vice president, business development, will present “Trusted Computing, Identity Management and Web Services, the Next Generation of the Internet”, Session IAM-101 of the Identity and Access Management Track at the RSA 2005 Conference at the Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA. Allen's presentation, sponsored by the Trusted Computing Group, will be on Feb. 15 at 2:00pm in the Esplanage Room in the South Hall.
Allen's presentation will show how trusted computing, using industry-standard security chip technology to defend the computing platform against software-based attacks, promises to make the internet safer terrain for enterprises, government and individuals ready to engage in high value digital transactions.
“In order for the promise of higher value digital transactions on the Internet to be realized, you need a range of capabilities to be present, all of which readily available today from vendors selling trusted computer solutions,” Allen said. “With millions of PCs now shipped by industry with Trusted Computing Group-compatible security chips called Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs), we now have the basis for widespread trustworthiness of computer platforms.
“Building a network of trusted devices can dramatically enhance the privacy and security of existing and future web services,” Allen said. “The productivity gains that the internet can deliver have been hampered by poor security and the inconvenience to users. Today's internet is a patchwork of solutions that lack interoperability. Trusted computing is expected to provide the foundation for a common root of trust for business and consumer Interactions on the internet.”
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Wave Systems Announces Secure Services Support For IBM ThinkPad Notebooks and NetVista Desktops
Business Wire, April 10, 2003
RSA Conference 2003
Booth 1612
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 10, 2003
Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ:WAVX)
-- The Industry's First Trust Infrastructure Services for TCG
Platforms Using EMBASSY(R) Trust Services to be Demonstrated
at RSA Conference 2003
Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ:WAVX), a leader in delivering trusted computing applications and services with advanced products, infrastructure and solutions across multiple trusted platforms, announced it will demonstrate EMBASSY(R) Trust Services for Trusted Computing Group (TCG) platforms working with IBM's Embedded Security Subsystem V2.0 on IBM ThinkPad notebooks and NetVista desktops at the RSA Conference 2003.
Based on industry standards, the IBM Embedded Security Subsystem uses encryption keys and processes to help secure data, communications and identity. It consists of both a hardware component, the cryptographic security chip, which supports key storage, privacy encryption and digital signatures for authentication of identity, and a downloadable software component, Client Security Software, which interfaces to the user and to other software applications. Because critical security functions take place within the protected environment of the chip, the system is inherently more secure than software-only solutions.
Wave's ETS software solutions are designed to be compliant with the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) specifications. The computer industry has shipped millions of PCs embedded with a TCG-standard chip, called the Trusted Platform Module. Wave has designed its secure business productivity software to work with all TCG-compliant TPMs commercially available.
More information about EMBASSY Trust Suite products is available through Wave Systems at www.wave.com.
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Federated Identity Management and Web Services Security with IBM Tivoli Security Solutions
IBM WebSphere Application Server V6.1 Security Handbook
Develop and Deploy a Secure Portal Solution Using WebSphere Portal V5 and Tivoli Access Manager V5.1
Enterprise Security Architecture Using IBM Tivoli Security Solutions
Today, companies have no way to trust identities belonging to their partners, suppliers, contracts and their outsourcers. This lack of trust means companies end-up creating online identities (and passwords) for all users. This approach is very costly, inefficient, and creates user frustration with multiple accounts and registrations for each Web Site. Federation is the set of business and technology agreements as well as policies that enable companies to optimally pursue business automation goals that best align with their business model, IT policies, security and privacy goals and requirements.
This book takes a close look at the trust infrastructure over which business federations are implemented. We cover important aspects of utilizing the Tivoli integrated identity management architecture in order to build and deploy the Tivoli Federated Identity Management and Web Services Security components, which consist of Tivoli Federated Identity Manager, IBM WebSphere Application Server, and the IBM Integrated Solutions Console.
This book is a valuable resource for security officers, administrators and architects who wish to understand and implement Web Services security and federated identity management.
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The Embedded Security Subsystem
The Embedded Security Subsystem is a chip on the ThinkPads mainboard that can take care of certain security related tasks conforming to the TCPA standard. It was first introduced among the T23 models and is now under the name Embedded Security Subsystem 2.0 an integral part of most of the modern ThinkPads. The functions of the chip are fall into three main groups:
The purpose of the whole thing is to keep the user's sensitive data out of range from software based attacks (like viruses, internet attacks etc.). One way the chip offers to achieve this is by providing storage for keys along with the neccessary functions to handle them within itself, so that a for example a private key never has to leave the chip (can't be seen by any piece of software). Besides this, there are more complex topics covered by the functionality of the chip. If you want to find out more about it you can find good documents on the IBM Research TCPA resources
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Wave Systems Makes Enterprise Applications
More Secure Than Ever
IBM's Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Program Helps Wave Systems Create More Secure Applications for the Enterprise User
Lee, MA - Aug. 4, 2003 – Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: WAVX – www.wave.com) today announced that the new Document Manager Vault and SmartSignature security software applications in Wave's EMBASSY® Trust Suite client software family work with the IBM (NYSE:IBM) Embedded Security Subsystem, a hardware and software-based security solution available on select ThinkPad notebooks and ThinkCentre desktops, to create more secure applications for the business user.
The compatibility of Wave's security software applications with IBM's hardware and software security solution is a result of Wave's successful participation in IBM's Independent Software Vendor program. This partnership is another example of IBM's commitment to help independent software vendors use IBM's hardware and software-based security system to make computing as secure as possible for the end-user.
"The early stages of any emerging market are critical. IBM has clearly established their leadership in trusted computing with their family of Embedded Security System personal computers," said Lark Allen, executive vice president, Wave Systems. "Wave's partnership with IBM will significantly help us in our objective to deliver open and interoperable solutions to business customers as trusted computing continues to evolve." Leveraging the IBM security chip for personal computers, the Wave EMBASSY Trust Suite Client Business Edition includes the first of many new applications aimed at business users: Wave's Document Manager Vault and SmartSignature. Wave's EMBASSY Trust Suite represents one of the first portfolios of user software applications, administrative tools, and trust-based systems developed specifically around the new Trusted Computing Group (TCG) specification.
Wave's Document Manager Vault application offers a user-controlled vault for storage of private data, such as encrypted files and folders on personal computers. Document Manager Vault offers the choice of a simple drag-and-drop mechanism, as well as a set of integrated plug-ins for popular office tools to encrypt and decrypt any type of file on a local PC. By using IBM's Embedded Security Subsystem in conjunction with Document Manager Vault, sensitive data is protected even if the PC is lost or stolen.
SmartSignature is the digital signing portion of Wave's eSign Transaction Management Suite - a complete document signing and management solution, which complies with ESIGN, HIPAA and UETA legislation that sets standards for electronic legal contracts. SmartSignature uses the IBM Embedded Security Subsystem to protect the user's identity credentials and provide trusted document signing capabilities.
For instance, a human resources department can create and distribute e-forms (i.e. beneficiary change forms for group life insurance), which can then be digitally signed by employees, automatically forwarded for additional approvals or processing, and then archived in a secure back-end vault. Also, if the employee's PC is lost or stolen, the information is still encrypted and protected on the hard disk.
Industry Leadership and Expertise
IBM is a founding member of the Trusted Computing Group, which is committed to industry-wide security initiatives that create additional privacy, trust and confidence in computing. IBM was the first in the industry to ship PCs compliant with TCG's standards-based security architecture. Since IBM began shipping personal computers equipped with embedded security almost four years ago, IBM has received numerous patents for security technologies, listened to thousands of customers and been involved in the creation of industry standards organizations for security. IBM has determined that the network infrastructure is at risk if end-user PCs are not protected. The PC is the first point of entry to the network infrastructure. If those machines are not secure, the network is easily accessible and data and intellectual capital is at risk.
The IBM Embedded Security Subsystem is an example of IBM's ThinkVantage Technologies, a set of tools designed to help customers reduce their IT costs. ThinkVantage Technologies help customers manage their networks, secure their information assets, and simplify wireless deployment.
More information on Wave Systems' suite of EMBASSY services is available at www.wave.com.
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