Security Model

IBM® Cognos® software security is designed to meet the need for security in different environments. You can use it in everything from a proof of concept application where security is rarely enabled to a large scale enterprise deployment.

The security model can be easily integrated with the existing security infrastructure in your organization. It is built on top of one or more authentication providers. You use the providers to define and maintain users, groups, and roles, and to control the authentication process. Each authentication provider known to IBM Cognos software is referred to as a namespace Name space icon .

In addition to the namespaces that represent the authentication providers, IBM Cognos software has a built-in namespace named Cognos Namespace. The Cognos namespace enhances your organization security policies and deployment ability of applications.

Security in IBM Cognos software is optional. If security is not enabled it means that no authentication providers are configured, and therefore all user access is anonymous. Typically, anonymous users have limited, read-only access.

Security documentation in Cognos Proven Practices

The IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Administration and Security Guide provides only basic information about a generic security implementation in IBM Cognos Business Intelligence. If you need information about specific implementations, using different security providers, you can use the resources available in IBM Cognos Proven Practices (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/cognos/cognosprovenpractices.html). Click the Security link in the page, and follow the links to different types of articles about security.