The company on Wednesday released Nsure Identity Manager 2, an update to its server software for authenticating access to networks and managing user passwords. Next week, Novell is expected to release exteNd Suite 5, the latest edition of its Java-based server software and Web services development tools.

Although the two remain separate products, Novell's plan is to steadily improve the integration between them. The company has created a single organization to develop both products, and sees a growing demand for tools to build Web services applications that depend on corporate-wide security systems, according to Novell executives.

"Everybody is trying to make Java tools easier for Java programmers. We want to make Web services and identity management accessible to mainstream business analysts and systems administrators," said Frank Auger, vice president of product management for Novell exteNd and Nsure products.

By Martin LaMonica at CNET.

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