TOM KEMP'S CENTRIFY BLOG

Not As Ironic As You May Think: Active Directory-Based Solution for Linux Identity Management Wins SearchEnterpriseLinux.com's 'Security Product of the Year'

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Wow, right on the heels of earning a spot on Linux Magazine's "Top 20 Companies to Watch," we are pleased to see that SearchEnterpriseLinux.com has just named DirectControl its Security Product of the Year. In selecting Centrify as the Gold winner, the editors noted, "Centrify Corp.'s DirectControl 4 makes it drop-dead simple to incorporate Linux, UNIX, Mac, Web and database platforms into a pre-existing Microsoft's Active Directory (AD) schema, enabling Linux administrators to eliminate redundant identity management systems and standardize on a single enterprise-wide identity management platform."

The irony for some may be that a Microsoft-centric solution is the Linux security product of the year. To me it makes sense in that it shows how the Linux community now recognizes that, for Linux to be successful, it must not only offer competitive features and pricing as well as tap into the power of the open source community, but must also play nice with other existing platforms. One of the reasons that Microsoft Windows NT became successful was that early on it offered "NetWare Services" to make it easier to drop an NT box into an existing NetWare environment. This is what customers want: better integration and interoperability across platforms, especially as it relates to security.

It was interesting that SearchEnterpriseLinux.com only focused in four areas for this award: Linux server distributions, Linux administration, Linux security applications and virtualization for Linux servers. Here was their thought process on the awards:

"Linux and open source are nothing if not breeding grounds for innovation and creativity. But when it comes to deploying rock-solid products to support an enterprise IT environment, Linux and open source software can be a mixed bag.

It's in this spirit that SearchEnterpriseLinux.com recruited a team of independent judges to select their top picks for Linux Products of the Year. Keeping the needs of the enterprise IT organization firmly in mind, judges considered products in four categories: Linux server distributions, Linux administration, Linux security applications and virtualization for Linux servers. All the products were announced and shipped in 2007 and submitted by the vendors themselves, editors or the judges. Awards were granted based on innovation, value, performance, reliability and ease of use."

In naming DirectControl "security product of the year," here is the key observation by editors in their article: (the emphasis is ours):

When it comes to access control and centralized identity management, Centrify Corp.'s DirectControl 4 is our Gold winner in the Security Applications/Tools on the Server Products of the Year category. Like it or not, many Linux admins need better ways to integrate with a Microsoft Active Directory (AD) environment, and the Centrify tools are best of breed.

Centrify definitely appreciates the back-to-back recognition from Linux Magazine and SearchEnterpriseLinux.com!!!

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