Research in Motion Turns to Centrify to Meet SOX Auditing Requirements
"When the SOX auditors were looking at the access control to our systems, [we] were already covered with Centrify."
Ian Brown
Systems Architect
Challenge: Server Security and SOX Compliance
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Research In Motion Limited (RIM) is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information, including email, phone, text messaging (SMS and MMS), Internet and intranet-based applications. — 4000+ employees
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Research in Motion needed to be able to quickly identify who had access to systems. The overhead required by regulatory requirements was taking too much time away from the core IT responsibilities.
"When the SOX auditors were looking at the access control to our systems, [we] were already covered with Centrify," said Ian Brown, systems architect at RIM. "Essentially, we could just print off a DirectControl report and say these people had access to this Linux system and when."
With DirectControl, Brown could instantaneously produce this login documentation. He could then correlate that information to any maintenance ticket ever generated at RIM. Before DirectControl, Brown estimated his staff of six spent dozens of hours each week on local server administration – work they now complete in seconds.
"We wanted to be able to use a central authentication source for all of our servers for our half dozen administrators," Brown said. "We could get that through Unix, but that would have required us to have a central login server and we basically can get that for free already with Active Directory." The login server would have been redundant; Brown wanted to leverage what AD had to offer."
RIM did their homework and considered other alternatives to Centrify DirectControl, including homegrown solutions.
"And when RIM calculated ROI for an internally developed application, Brown said it became evident that it would be too challenging and expensive. What RIM needed, he decided, was a third-party application that worked out of the box. He said they found it in Mountain View, Calif.-based Centrify Corp.'s DirectControl."
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