TOM KEMP'S CENTRIFY BLOG

Experts Agree: DirectControl is 'the best tool out there for integrating Linux and AD'

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

I just received the September issue of Windows IT Pro Magazine, and was pleased to see our very own Centrify DirectControl featured in a comparative review of "Cross-Platform Identity Management Solutions for Single Sign-On."

Suffice to say, the in-depth review figured out the same thing that over 600 enterprise customers have discovered in the last two years (including over 38% of the Fortune 50) — DirectControl is the best solution on the market for integrating UNIX, Linux and Mac systems into Active Directory. DirectControl won the Editor's Choice award, and was the only solution awarded 5 of 5 stars.

Some of the highlights include …

"For Group Policy functionality, Centrify DirectControl impressed us. We really liked the way that DirectControl uses ADM templates instead of adding additional bloat to AD Users and Computers. We were surprised by just how many options you can configure, including password policies and UNIX login settings.…"

… and summarizes the review by saying:

"Centrify DirectControl wins the Editors' Choice award, as it is the most robust product…. You can't go wrong if you choose Centrify. If you want a seasoned contender with strong UNIX personality management and robust migration management, Centrify DirectControl gets our highest recommendation."

By the way, the award is even more compelling when you consider that the only "con" the review cites regarding DirectControl — that it requires schema extensions to Active Directory — is actually incorrect. DirectControl has never required schema extensions to store UNIX identity data within Active Directory; this has been the case since we released our Version 1.0 of DirectControl in 2005. As this FAQ on our web site explains, we offer several industry-complaint methods to fit the full range of customer environments:

You can store data in Active Directory using the RFC 2307 schema added in Windows 2003 R2. (And you don't even have to be on R2; you can apply the schema extension to earlier versions. And also note that we support RFC 2307 at both the Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 forest level.)
You can use the Microsoft Services for UNIX (SFU) schema extension.
You can also take advantage of DirectControl's ability to store UNIX identity data without extending the schema.
You can store data within Active Directory using a combination of the different approaches above.

So we give you complete flexibility as it relates to UNIX identity data storage within Active Directory, and at any time you can seamlessly migrate the data from one of the options we support to another, giving you flexibility to (optionally) extend the schema if and when you want to. See this video chalktalk for more details on how DirectControl stores data within Active Directory.

Speaking of experts weighing in on DirectControl, another recent article was brought to my attention, this time in Linux-Watch.com from eWeek. Steven J. Vaughan Nichols analyzed our DirectControl 3.0.7 announcement, and talked to analysts and IT folks out in the industry, and this is what he wrote:

"According to the company, these new capabilities further enhance Centrify customers' ability to secure and streamline their heterogeneous environments by centralizing identity and policy management within their existing Active Directory infrastructure.

Others agree. 'By extending its authentication and access control to the widest range of non-Microsoft operating systems, Centrify has made Microsoft Active Directory an appealing directory in which to centralize identity management in a multi-platform environment,' said Jon Oltsik, senior analyst for the Enterprise Strategy Group."

Then he adds:

"A Unisys system architect agreed. 'It's the best tool out there for integrating Linux and AD. With Microsoft's recent interest in improving Linux/Windows networking interoperability, I'm surprised Microsoft hasn't bought the company.'"

Wow, we definitely appreciate the compliment — winning this comprehensive review and having experts and analysts telling you that you are the best are great feathers in our cap. But, as I told our team at Centrify, at the end we weigh our success by the number of happy and successfully deployed customers of our products, and that's what our primary focus will always be on.

Categories: Centrify, Customers and Press, DirectControl for Systems, Group Policy, All

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