IBM has unveiled new Tivoli software that automates the way banks, hospitals and other organisations can audit and report on information needed for compliance purposes.

Tivoli Access Manager for E-Business 6.0 automates the process of checking who has access to each application by capturing the data in one centralised location and generating automated compliance reports.

IBM believes that the update will help companies address Sarbanes Oxley requirements by allowing an internal IT security team to control who has access to what application.

It will also prevent employees from accessing confidential health records or trying to read early quarterly financial information before it is publicly available.

The centralised reporting capability is designed to enable compliance officers to quickly detect unauthorised access to resources and immediately remediate with Tivoli Identity Manager.

When combined with Tivoli Federated Identity Manager, these capabilities are extended outside the company enabling the business to centrally audit and report on business partner and third-party access to services.

Tivoli Access Manager also provides full access management for web-based businesses, leveraging IBM Tivoli Directory Server or almost any other repository that stores user names and passwords.

"IBM access management software enables companies to cut through the clutter of compliance," said Susanne Ruschka-Taylor, global and Americas leader for business risk management at IBM Business Consulting Services.

"With the new version of Tivoli Access Manager, organisations can automate the way they collect information for compliance reports, which will cut the time and cost it takes to meet regulatory mandates."

In other news IBM has announced a new software strategy in supercomputing allowing customers to leverage its file system across mixed-vendor systems.

Linux Networx is the first hardware vendor under the strategy to license IBM's General Parallel File System to help enable its customers to manage seamless data pools in mixed vendor supercomputing environments.