Thor Technologies on Monday announced a new version of its Xellerate provisioning system that adds features to make the platform easier to implement and ensure reliability in the provisioning process.

Xellerate 7.0 is intended to help enterprises automate the process of provisioning access to applications and system resources to employees and business partners. Such systems are typically justified on the basis of security, because they help enterprises ensure users have access only to the resources they require and, conversely, make it simpler to revoke all access rights, such as when employees leave the company or ties with a business partner are severed. The systems also reduce administrative costs associated with the provisioning process.

New in Xellerate 7.0 is a feature that enables administrators to plan for events that may disrupt the provisioning process. For example, if Xellerate attempts to provision a new account on a server that is temporarily unavailable, the platform can be programmed to suspend the process for a time and try again later, rather than aborting the entire process.

"The single most important thing to automate is exceptions," says Nancy Colwell, senior vice president for Thor, based in New York. "Otherwise, they will kill you."

Version 7.0 also is easier to use from several perspectives. Its open API has been enhanced to make it easier for customers to customize the system to their various system configurations.

"The notion of a standard Solaris 8 server, for example, is nonsense," says John Aisien, vice president of business development for Thor. "It's used differently in every environment, so you have to enable each company to modify the API to suite their requirements."

A reconciliation engine in Xellerate 7.0 allows customers to import existing business rules, such as those that are already built in to an application to determine who can access it. The engine will also identify rogue accounts created outside of the provisioning process, thereby plugging a potential security hole. Version 7.0 also supports a delegated administration console and a user self-service console.

Reporting features have likewise been enhanced, with the ability to report on real-time as well as historical information. Users can now track application usage statistics, for example. That can help identify instances where the number of users employing an application is below the number of licenses the enterprise owns, helping the company save money in software licensing costs.

Xellerate 7.0 will be available in January. Its price varies widely, but an implementation covering 40,000 to 50,000 users would be in the $700,000 to $1 million range.