Microsoft Licenses UCF

For further information, contact:

Kerry MacInnes
Unified Compliance Framework
Phone: 510-962-5192
kmacinnes@unifiedcompliance.com

 

Microsoft Licenses Network Frontiers' Unified Compliance Framework

Network Frontiers Looks Ahead to 2010 After Breakout Year

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LAFAYETTE, CA, January 12, 2010 - Network Frontiers, the leader in IT regulatory compliance management, is pleased to announce Microsoft Corporation is the latest licensee of the Unified Compliance Framework (UCF). Microsoft recently announced plans to integrate the UCF into Microsoft's System Center Service Manager 2010.

The UCF harmonizes IT controls -- 20,004 citations mapped across 2,657 active UCF Common Control IDs as of November 31, 2009 -- from over 400 international regulatory requirements, standards and guidelines.

Network Frontier's unique methodology transforms this massive compilation of data into a single set of straightforward requirements that clearly show the many points where global, state and industry regulations overlap, enabling businesses to leverage existing policies, processes and tools to meet regulatory demands, cutting the cost and time invested in compliance efforts.

The Unified Compliance Framework will serve as the central regulatory framework for the Compliance and Risk Process Management Pack. The solution will ship following the release of Service Manager in the first half of 2010.

Network Frontiers' Breakout Year
The Microsoft license rounds out a stellar year for Network Frontiers. With fourteen leading regulatory management solutions providers now licensing the UCF, five pending announcements and an additional five licensing agreements currently in progress, Network Frontiers' United Compliance Framework (UCF) has become the industry standard database for compliance vendors.

Gartner highlighted Network Frontiers and the UCF in its Cool Vendors in Risk Management and Compliance report, 2009. Gartner defines a cool vendor as a company "with innovative, impactful, and intriguing technologies or solutions which enable users to do things they couldn't do before" and praised the UCF for providing a tool that "reduce(s) complexity and cut(s) the costs of compliance and audit ...ensures a thorough legal review of the mappings to the authoritative sources" and is inexpensive ... "just about anyone can get some value from the UCF even if your organization has already put the effort into developing your proprietary mapping."

Additionally, the UCF was recently cited as the "common language for overlapping compliance standards" by the IT Knowledge Exchange and described as "an incredibly useful tool" by Paul Roberts, a senior analyst at The 451 Group, who stated "Vendors such as CA, Inc., Archer Technologies LLC, McAfee, Inc., Lumension Security, Inc. and OpenPages, Inc. have all licensed UCF content for use in their risk management products in recent months, and we expect more to sign on in 2010, as customers look for help cutting through the Gordian Knot of compliance mandates."

Licensees of the UCF now include:

  • Archer Technologies: delivers enterprise governance, risk and compliance solutions. Archer enables highly regulated companies to reduce enterprise risks, manage and demonstrate compliance, automate business processes, and gain visibility into corporate risk and security controls. www.archer.com (now being acquired by EMC.) (NYSE: EMC)
     
  • CA: one of the world's largest IT management software providers, CA's governance, risk and compliance solutions enable enterprises to manage risk in a unified and centralized way, streamline GRC activities, ensure transparency, and improve oversight of IT risk and compliance. www.ca.com (Nasdaq: CA)
     
  • ControlScan: specializes in providing Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance and security solutions designed specifically to meet the needs of small- to medium-sized e-commerce and retail merchants. www.controlscan.com
     
  • Lumension: develops, integrates and markets security software solutions that help businesses protect their vital information and manage critical risk across network and endpoint assets. www.lumension.com
     
  • McAfee: the world's largest dedicated security technology company. The company delivers proven solutions and services that help secure systems and networks around the world, allowing home users, businesses, the public sector and service providers to prove compliance with regulations, protect data, prevent disruptions, identify vulnerabilities, and continuously monitor and improve their security. www.mcafee.com (NYSE: MFE)
     
  • Microsoft: Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft will integrate the UCF into Microsoft's System Center Service Manager 2010. The UCF database will serve as the central regulatory information framework for the Compliance and Risk Process Management Pack. www.microsoft.com (Nasdaq: "MSFT")
     
  • MetricStream: provides enterprise-wide Governance, Risk, Compliance (GRC) and Quality Solutions for global corporations such as Pfizer, Philips, NASDAQ, UBS, SanDisk, BP, Subway, Fairchild Semiconductor, Hitachi and TaylorMade-Adidas Golf in industries such as pharmaceuticals, medical devices, automotive, food, high tech manufacturing, energy and financial services. www.metricstream.com
     
  • NEMEA: provides on-demand software solutions for compliance, remediation, risk and governance. The fully automated survey creation, management and reporting capabilities of NEMEA's Compliance Center® enables businesses to determine their compliance position across all departments, compress audit time, and align departmental efforts. www.nemea.us
     
  • NetIQ: engineers comprehensive systems and security management solutions that help enterprises maximize IT service delivery and efficiency, deliver critical business services, mitigate operational risk, and document policy compliance. www.netiq.com
     
  • OpenPages: provides integrated risk management solutions for global companies that empower a risk-based approach to identify and manage key business risks across the enterprise, avoiding unexpected outcomes while improving performance. www.openpages.com
     
  • PolicyTech: develops policy and procedure management software for all industries, including healthcare, banking, corporate, university, and non-profit organizations. PolicyTech focuses on providing solutions that increase its clients' business efficiency and profit maximization. www.policytech.com
     
  • Relational Security: RelSec's RSAM software is utilized by global Fortune 500 organizations with unique and complex requirements to smaller single-site companies looking for out-of-the-box structure and consistency at a reasonable price-point. www.relsec.com
     
  • TruArx: provides cost-effective information technology governance, risk and compliance (GRC) solutions. Delivered via a software-as-a-service model, TruArx solutions allow clients to quickly implement and maintain a security program to reduce the cost of compliance and improve risk management. www.truarx.com

"We'd like to thank our partners and customers for making 2009 a success for Network Frontiers and the UCF," says Craig Isaacs, CEO of Network Frontiers. "We look forward to working with you in 2010 and furthering our commitment to simplify the growing complexity of compliance demands."

About Network Frontiers and the UCF
Since 1992, Network Frontiers has developed ground-breaking tools to support IT best practices with a special focus on regulatory compliance, metrics, systems continuity and governance. The Unified Compliance Framework (UCF) is Network Frontiers' flagship product. By focusing on commonalities across regulations, standards-based development, and simplified architectures, the UCF supports a strategic approach to IT compliance that reduces cost, limits liability, and leverages the value of compliance-related technologies and services across the enterprise. The UCF's content and methodology is the direct result of Network Frontiers deep understanding of IT regulations and standards and decades of experience consulting for clients, publications, and vendors in the mission-critical IT arena.

 

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