The deal seems to be designed mainly to beef up the smart card-based certificate management capabilities surrounding the Windows 2003 Certificate Authority.
Microsoft security chief Mike Nash said in a statement: Through this acquisition, we’re excited to gain technology that makes it easier for customers to take advantage of the smart card capabilities in Windows with tools to simplify smart card life-cycle management.
Certificates and PKIs are notoriously difficult to deploy and manage. Alacris’s idNexus software is lifecycle management for certs in Windows-heavy environments. It also supports Entrust’s CA.
