TOM KEMP'S CENTRIFY BLOG

Mac Attack!!!

Thursday, March 8, 2007

At the RSA show on February 5 we announced DirectControl for Mac OS X, SmartCard Login Option, which enables Mac OS X users to join Microsoft Active Directory environments that require two-factor authentication via smart cards. The first smart card standard that we are supporting is for Department of Defense Common Access Cards (CAC), used pervasively throughout the DoD and related agencies to authenticate both military personnel and contractors to systems around the world.

As many of you know, smart cards are recognized as the de-facto standard for two-factor authentication. For Federal agencies, HSPD12 (Homeland Security Presidential Directive #12) mandates the use of two-factor authentication for all Federal computer systems. To address this requirement, we are coming out with Centrify DirectControl for Mac OS X, SmartCard Login Option, which lets a user log in to any DirectControl-enabled system without requiring any special user configuration on the local system, because all authentication and access control data is stored in Microsoft Active Directory. Administrators can of course use Active Directory to centrally control which users may or may not log in to which Macs.

I think this further demonstrates the leadership we are taking in the market to integrate all platforms into Active Directory, including the Mac. Besides supporting 150+ flavors of UNIX and Linux, Centrify DirectControl also enables Active Directory-based authentication and access control for Mac systems and is the first and only solution that enables IT managers to centrally secure and configure Mac systems through Active Directory Group Policy. This is cool stuff, because IT managers can streamline operations and strengthen security by establishing a single point of administration — Active Directory. And end-users gain single sign-on to their Macs through their Active Directory account. Finally, we do support both Mac on PowerPC and Intel chips.

Definitely check out the following regarding our Mac support: a detailed video chalk talk, a detailed whitepaper on our Mac capability, and of course you can request a free trial.

We are getting some great press regarding our Mac support, including some additional blog posts, such as this blog post by Ryan Faas in Computerworld. Ryan said this about Centrify: "Centrify's Direct Control offers another option - group policies in Active Directory that are designed for Mac management. Although the policies listed on Centrify's website don't offer all the management solutions that you can get using Mac OS X Server, they can be a useful set of tools for expanding Mac management in an all Windows Server environment and Centrify recently extended the product with smart-card support."

We have some more interesting Apple Mac-related announcements coming out real soon, including in the area of Group Policies, where we will further our reach (and address Ryan's sole critique). So stay tuned!

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