IT Security & Compliance

Keep your complex, heterogeneous physical and virtual data centers secure and compliant with centralized management of user access rights, privileges and activity

In cross-platform environments, establishing accountability by linking entitlements and actions to named users can be a complex task. Active Directory provides a central repository for Windows user accounts. But entitlements to UNIX and Linux systems in particular (which are key platforms for business-critical data) may reside in multiple identity silos such as NIS, LDAP databases, or platform-specific proprietary directories, or they may be managed locally system by system.

Compliance requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley, FISMA and PCI, as well as security best practices, have a few simple concepts in common: organizations must limit access to business-critical systems only to named users whose job role requires it, and they must audit and report on what those users do.

Centrify addresses these IT security and compliance requirements with a comprehensive identity and access management solution that uses Microsoft Active Directory to centralize authentication, administration, access control, authorization and auditing of non-Microsoft systems and applications — whether physical or virtual, on-premise or cloud-based. Choose a topic to learn more:

• IT Security & Access Control
  Strengthen IT security with Active Directory-centric access control and policy enforcement for UNIX, Linux and Mac systems and applications.
• Virtualization Security
  Lock down hypervisor platforms and enforce consistent, global security management along every step of the way as your data center migrates from physical to virtual.
• Cloud Security
  Dynamically secure Linux-based cloud servers through automated account provisioning and policy enforcement.
• Server Isolation & Protection
  Protect sensitive UNIX and Linux systems by dynamically isolating them and blocking untrusted systems from communicating with trusted systems.
• Encryption of Data in Motion
  Protect intellectual property and other sensitive information by encrypting data in motion.
• SOX Compliance & Auditing
  Satisfy SOX auditors with simplified reporting that shows who has access to audited business systems, what they can do, and what actions they have performed.
• PCI Compliance & Auditing
  Simplify compliance reporting for stringent PCI DSS regulations by linking all access rights, privileges, and audit logs to a single, definitive Active Directory identity.
• FISMA Compliance & Auditing
  Simplify and streamline your IT environment while meeting the "need to know" access and privilege managements requirements of the Federal Information Systems Management Act.

3-Part Webinar Series What Gartner Says About Using Active Directory for Centralized Authentication, Auditing and SSO

While all the above features make DirectControl for Mac a tempting solution, the fact that it includes a range of group policies that can be used to secure and manage the Mac OS X environment is what makes it an excellent solution. DirectControl for Mac uses group policies that integrate with the client-side components of Apple's managed preference environment. ... Having had the opportunity to work with both the existing set of group policies and to see a preview version of the upcoming expanded set, I was amazed at Centrify's success. The experience of managing Macs was exactly the same as managing Windows computers using group policies. Any experienced Active Directory administrators, even those who have no Mac support experience, will feel completely at home. Any experienced Mac administrator will also notice that Centrify has managed to mirror the preference management component of Mac OS X Server's Workgroup Manager.

Ryan Faas
ComputerWorld
March 29, 2007