Authentication

NEW Centrify Suite 2012, launched Sept 2011, offers many new security and compliance features that organisations will find of valuable. It includes DirectAudit 2.0, which provides real-time monitoring and auditing of privileged user access on UNIX, Linux and Windows systems.

We rate the Centrify Suite as it offers a comprehensive solution for enhancing IT security, meeting regulatory compliance requirements and streamlining IT operations. Centrify's solution is "mature, technically strong, full featured, and possesses broad platform support.

The Centrify Suite centrally secures cross-platform data centres through Active Directory-based identity and access management of the industry's widest range of heterogeneous systems, hypervisors and applications. Over 2000 organisations, including over 40% of the Fortune 50, have adopted Centrify's cost-effective approach to access control, privilege management and auditing of their physical and virtual infrastructure.

Built on an integrated architecture that leverages our patented technology, the Centrify Suite of solutions enables organisations to reduce IT expense and complexity, improve end-user productivity through single sign-on, strengthen security and enhance regulatory compliance initiatives.

Key components of the Centrify Suite include integrated authentication, access control, role-based privilege management, user-level auditing and server protection solutions, consisting of Centrify DirectControl, Centrify DirectAuthorise, Centrify DirectAuthorise, Centrify DirectAudit, Centrify DirectSecure and Centrify DirectManage.

Centrify Express consists of:

• Centrify DirectControl Express, which enables Active Directory-based single sign-on to Linux and Mac
• Centrify DirectManage Express, which discovers non-Windows systems and joins them to Active Directory
• Centrify-Enabled Open-Source Tools, for remote access and Samba integration to enhance productivity

If you have just a few non-critical Linux systems or Macs, then Centrify Express is for you; use it for free as long as you wish. If you have larger numbers of non-Windows systems, want enterprise-class support, or need advanced features, it can help. But the bottom line is that with Centrify Express you get more functionality and more to upgrade to than other free Active Directory integration solutions.

• reduce IT expenses and complexity
• improve end-user productivity through single sign-on
• strengthen security and enhance regulatory compliance initiatives.

As the first Red Hat Premier Partner in the UK you would expect us to recommend technology from the Red Hat ecosystem. However, we do so solely on the basis of the quality of this centralised repository solution for your identity and user information.

Red Hat Directory Server is an LDAP-based server that centralises application settings, user profiles, group data, policies, and access control information into an operating system-independent, network-based registry.

By forming the central repository for an Identity Management infrastructure Red Hat Directory Server simplifies user management, eliminating data redundancy and automating data maintenance. It also improves security, by storing policies and access control information.

It also creates a single authentication source across entire enterprise for both intranet and extranet applications.

In short Red Hat Directory Server:

• Centralises management of people and their profiles, reducing administrative costs
• Acts as a central repository for user profiles and preferences, enabling personalization
• Allows 4-way multi-master replication of data across the enterprise, providing a centralized, consistent data source available to enterprise applications
• Enables single sign-on access with a partner solution
• Provides scalability for massive numbers of users by containing the information control required for developing extranet applications
• Provides full support for 64-bit HP-UX, Solaris and Red Hat Enterprise Linux platforms
• Provides the foundation for strong certificate-based authentication when used in conjunction with a Red Hat Certificate System