Overview#
External Security Managers (ESM) is a computing term that refers to an application outside the operating system that provides a layer of security to various system artifacts.The term is typically seen when referring to security products on IBM z/OS platforms. An example is the RACF security package. [1]
External Security Managers (ESM) is best known on IBM Mainframe
On z/OS there are three primary External Security Managers (ESM)
- RACF - Short for Resource Access Control Facility, is an IBM software product. It is a security system that provides access control and auditing functionality for the z/OS and z/VM operating systems. RACF was introduced in 1976
- Top Secret - Computer Associates
- ACF2 (Access Control Facility)
In 1987, acquisitions made Computer Associates the largest independent vendor of mainframe infrastructure software and dominant vendor of OS/MVS security software with CA-Top Secret (#2 market share) and CA-ACF2 (#1 market share). IBM's RACF product held the #3 market share position. I really have no idea where market share of these products are today.
External Security Managers (ESM) is an Authentication Agent for z/OS platforms and can be utilized to provide Single Sign-On for applicaitons on the platform.
There is a DirXML ZOS BIDIRECTIONAL DRIVER that will work with most of the External Security Managers (ESM) on z/OS platforms.
More Information#
There might be more information for this subject on one of the following:- Access Control Facility
- Authentication Agent
- Resource Access Control Facility
- ZOS
- ZOS BIDIRECTIONAL DRIVER
[#1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_Security_Manager
retrieved 2012-10-15
