CA Adapter Windows Installation Guide › Introduction to CA Adapter

Introduction to CA Adapter

Organizations use various authentication methods to secure access to the resources available in their private networks. Basic authentication methods, such as user name and password, while protecting the integrity of data transmissions, expose organizations to the risk of identity fraud. Authentication methods that utilize hardware devices, such as One-Time Password (OTP) tokens, are expensive to deploy and manage. Also, the problem of Identity Management is compounded by the increasing number of applications in a network. Each application requires a unique username and password to be remembered by the end user, and applications need dedicated resources to store and manage the user credentials. Therefore, the need for Single Sign-On (SSO) and multi-factor authentication services is pivotal for organizations to provide secure access to protected resources.

Adapter provides SSO and multi-factor authentication services for multiple Web applications. It enables organizations to upgrade from the standard user name and password authentication mechanism, without changing their users login experience or their critical business processes.

Adapter combines a flexible, software-based strong authentication solution, and a risk-based adaptive authentication solution to provide a robust and secure solution for accessing Web applications, such as:

• SAML-based Web portals
• Web Access Management solutions, such as SiteMinder
• Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) or SSL-based Virtual Private Network (VPN) appliances

This guide provides information for installing and configuring CA Adapter 2.2.9 on Windows with supported applications, such as CA SiteMinder, Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) based Web portals, or Virtual Private Network (VPN) applications. This guide describes the following:

• The high-level architecture of the integration process
• Components of Adapter
• Requirements for installing Adapter
• Installing and configuring Adapter to work with the supported applications
• Uninstalling Adapter

This chapter introduces you to the basic concepts of Adapter and covers the following topics:

• Adapter Integration Options
• Adapter Architecture
• Adapter Workflows
• Adapter Features

Note: CA Adapter still contains the terms Arcot, WebFort and RiskFort in some of its code objects and other artifacts. Therefore, you will find occurrences of Arcot, WebFort and RiskFort in all CA Adapter documentation. In addition, some of the topics in this guide do not follow the standard formatting guidelines. These inconsistencies will be fixed in a future release.