The acquisition of Encentuate by IBM is yet another example of the recent demand for startups that focus on identity management and access control. Starting in mid-July 2007, five big vendors have snatched up startups that fit this bill, including Oracle (Bharosa), Cisco (Securent), Sun Microsystems (Vaau), Ping Identity (Sxip Access), and Microsoft (Credentica). In addition, the Eclipse Foundation recently released Higgins 1.0, a free identity management framework. Within this fierce market, IBM is the leader in single sign-on and authentication products, and Encentuate will bolster its position by adding customers from the health care industry (half of its 80 customers are from this group) and by providing greater flexibility, allowing employees to be authenticated with tools they already possess such as biometrics, tokens, smart cards, and RFID badges. This flexibility, combined with single sign-on to everything an employee is authorized for, is a huge convenience. However, there is growing concern in the industry about single sign-on in that, although a single password is convenient and simplifies administration, it also leads to a single point of failure in security. IBM will integrate Encentuate with elements of its Tivoli Access Manager suite which includes Identity Manager, Compliance Insight Manager, Federated Identity Manager, and Security Operations Manager. The acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, also includes Encentuates development facilities located in Singapore. IBM plans to use the lab, its 59th, as a software security lab.