Iron Mountain
Iron Mountain
Iron Mountain – the global leader in information protection and storage services located in Boston, MA - approached IBM and Ascendant Technology with a need to develop a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) strategy and evolve their Enterprise Security Solution. This solution was necessary to address both internal corporate and external partner concerns and to meet the growing demands of their online community. Iron Mountain focused on an IBM WebSphere Portal solution, developed into the Iron Mountain Connect Portal (IMC), which would also replace an aging portal solution that had become difficult to maintain. Being prudent and recognizing the large scope of the initiatives, Iron Mountain decided to adopt a phased approach to minimize risk, maximize focus on key business drivers and achieve an excellent return on investment.
Iron Mountain provides applications which are vital but not core to their customers business needs. These applications are based on a “virtual enterprise” model – designed to seamlessly fit in with the enterprise’s other applications and enable Iron Mountain customers to effectively provide necessary services like information management, records management and data protection. For these types of applications, adhering to tight privacy and security requirements is paramount. Consequently, Iron Mountain decided to implement an overall solution for Identity and Access Management (IAM) in Phase One.
Iron Mountain faced the enormous logistical challenge of coordinating several parallel business drivers over a relatively short period of time. Leveraging the existing code base and utilizing in-house developers enabled Iron Mountain to aggressively plan for parallel initiatives – centralizing security, enhancing application functionality and building a new portal infrastructure – while moving toward a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Ascendant Technology assisted Iron Mountain by providing technical expertise and leadership in several strategic areas during Phase One. Their (Our) skilled team of consultants offered critical guidance on Security, Portal Infrastructure, Application Architecture, and Development, working closely with Iron Mountain personnel as a single team to transfer knowledge and achieve tangible results in a timely, efficient manner.
Aligning Technology with Iron Mountain Business Needs
While any business benefits greatly from a centralized approach to security for authentication, authorization, identity management and audit compliance, Iron Mountain’s business and reputation rely on state-of-the-art security protecting their customer’s information. Iron Mountain brought in a stellar team of consultants to develop a fully integrated security solution during phase one of Iron Mountain’s IAM solution. Led by an Ascendant Technology Senior Consultant, the team configured and customized IBM Tivoli Access Manager for e-business (TAM), Tivoli Identity Manager (TIM), and IBM Tivoli Directory Integrator to suit Iron Mountain’s specific needs.
Ascendant consultants established the initial IBM WebSphere Portal infrastructure and worked side-by-side with Iron Mountain operations to set up additional environments. Using ant, jacl and custom xmlaccess to create a deployment system, the team constructed release packages which are deployed to each environment. Additionally, Ascendant Technology provided invaluable expertise during critical testing for validating the performance characteristics of the new architecture and were present during transitions to QA. Ascendant Technology will be actively involved when Iron Mountain goes live, exhibiting their strong commitment to customer success and project completion.
Phase One delivers the first services for Iron Mountain’s SOA strategy by exposing the account provisioning process to external users as custom portlets in IBM WebSphere Portal. Interfacing directly with a delegated administration model within IBM Tivoli Identity Manager, the web services utilized by these custom portlets are reusable assets and represent the initial technical alignment with Iron Mountain’s SOA vision. Ascendant Technology provided the architectural direction, implementation over-sight, and guidance for the Iron Mountain developers during their transition to the new paradigms of a - Service-Oriented Architecture model.
In addition, Ascendant Technology:
- Implemented a secure web application for enabling users to reset their password via challenge response questions managed by IBM Tivoli Identity Manager.
- Provided a portlet service to enable Iron Mountain Account Managers to view information as if they were specific Iron Mountain customers.
- Implemented a portlet which requires users to set up their individual challenge response questions on first login.
- Provided development assistance for the RSS feed linking Interwoven with WCM.
The Resulting Benefits
Phase One sets a solid foundation for Iron Mountain’s broad initiatives. The solution for Identity and Access Management (IAM) standardizes security across the enterprise, provides a single-sign on (SSO) infrastructure, and reduces the effort needed to secure new custom applications. Iron Mountain Connect enables customers to administer their own user base within the IAM solution via web services and is the first implementation for Iron Mountain’s SOA initiative. Ascendant Technology is proud to have participated in phase one of Iron Mountain’s visionary infrastructure and to have provided technical expertise with the custom implementations.
Iron Mountain customers benefit by having access to secure, private and robust applications which provide innovative solutions for managing, protecting and storing information. Additional benefits include the acquisition of a deep understanding of the solution, gained directly through active participation during the implementation process. Throughout the project, Ascendant Technology resolved specific technical details encountered throughout architecture, design, implementation, deployment and testing – lending its wealth of expertise with the IBM products and newer technologies. Ascendant consultants thereby supplemented Iron Mountain’s excellent in-house development team as they broadened their knowledge to include the new products and technologies.
