Integrated Authentication Solution Bolsters
Security, Reduces Administration Costs and Supports Compliance
Efforts by Centrally Managing User Identifications, Authentication
and Security Policies across Heterogeneous IT
Environments
AGOURA HILLS, Calif.-April 1, 2008 - Symark
International, developer of the PowerSeries information security
solutions for managing privileged account access, today announced
the general availability of PowerADvantage, a new integrated
authentication and configuration solution that extends Active
Directorys centralized authentication, authorization, account
access, policy enforcement and infrastructure management
functionality to UNIX and Linux systems. PowerADvantage reduces
administration costs, improves security and supports compliance
efforts by allowing organizations to centrally manage disparate
Unix/Linux user identifications, authentication, security policies
and automatic deployment of configuration settings through
Microsoft Active Directory. Additionally, PowerADvantage
helps create a Single Sign-on (SSO) environment where users can log
in once with their user name and password to gain access to the
resources of multiple software systems.
"PowerADvantage naturally evolved from Symark's many years of
experience providing non-intrusive access control solutions to
heterogeneous UNIX and Linux data centers. We are constantly
working with our customers to identify and meet their security and
compliance needs, and the ability to extend Active Directorys
functionality to Linux and UNIX systems is appealing to many
organizations," said Bob Farber, chief operating officer at Symark
Software. "Using PowerADvantage to leverage Active Directory's
identity and authentication features for the Unix/Linux environment
can provide real benefits for end users and administrators. We have
received nothing but positive feedback from those organizations
that were involved in our Beta program especially regarding its
seamless integration with Symark's PowerBroker. This combination
augments the rich policy language in PowerBroker and leverages
Microsoft Group Policy functionality to provide a central point of
policy that can be automatically distributed to the UNIX and Linux
systems saving many hours and ensuring consistency in security
policies throughout the enterprise."
How PowerADvantage Works
PowerADvantage implements an agent on UNIX and Linux machines that
communicates with Active Directory's domain controllers. During the
installation of the PowerADvantage agent, the UNIX or Linux host is
joined to the domain and the host is configured to route
authentication requests through the PowerADvantage agent. This
allows the PowerADvantage agent to communicate with the Active
Directory domain controllers to process authentication requests and
access the Group Policy Objects used for configuration
management.
After installation, the computer object for each UNIX and Linux
host can be moved to different organizational units in the Active
Directory hierarchy, changing which set of Group Policy Objects
apply to that host. The PowerADvantage Context of each host can
also be changed, which will immediately change the login
configuration for all Active Directory-based users logging in to
that host. Both of these changes can be performed without
re-booting the host or re-starting the PowerADvantage agent.
Additionally, the PowerADvantage agent is configured by Group
Policy, so any changes in the configuration of the agents can be
performed through Group Policy without the need to visit each
individual host.
PowerADvantage Key Features
PowerADvantage delivers a single, centralized management solution
that reduces costs, administrative overhead and training
requirements while helping organizations strengthen their corporate
security policies, increasing productivity and simplifying
compliance reporting requirements. Features of PowerADvantage
include:
-
Cross-platform Single Sign-on (SSO) -
PowerADvantage helps create a Single Sign-on environment where
users can log in once with their user name and password to gain
access to the resources of multiple software systems.
-
Non-Intrusive Installation Process -
Administrators can deploy PowerADvantage in a matter of minutes
without making any changes to the Active Directory schema.
PowerADvantage's simple agent installation process joins the host
to Active Directory and implements the unified login function,
eliminating any complex, time consuming configuration changes.
Additionally, PowerADvantages intelligent import tool streamlines
and simplifies the importing and mapping of current UNIX and Linux
user information directly into Active Directory.
-
Comprehensive Centralized Storage - All user
and group information is centrally stored within Active
Directory. IT costs for maintaining and managing multiple
identity stores can be reduced by consolidating them into a single
identity store. Orgranizations can leverage their
current investment in Active Directory by standardizing all of
their user identification, authentication and configuration on
tools and processes that integrate with Active
Directory.
-
Integration with Symark's PowerBroker -
PowerADvantage is the only solution that extends Active Directory's
identity management, access control and group policy services to
UNIX and Linux systems and integrates with Symark's PowerBroker,
the industry's most comprehensive solution for authorization and
access control within heterogeneous UNIX and Linux IT environments.
The combination of PowerADvantage and PowerBroker enhances security
and compliance efforts by facilitating efficient management of both
end-user and administrator account access from Active Directory
while controlling access and tasks performed using the root
account.
-
Automated Deployment of Configuration Settings
- Using Group Policy, IT administrators can leverage
Active Directory to establish secure, centrally-managed
configuration services to UNIX and Linux hosts (as well as to the
applications running on them). Using either custom-created
administrative templates or those provided by PowerADvantage,
administrators create configuration settings that are automatically
stored in Active Directory. This facilitates the rapid automatic
deployment and maintenance of configuration settings across a large
number of hosts, greatly reducing administrative time and cost.
Because these policies are reapplied to each host based on a
pre-determined interval, any unapproved changes to the
configuration items maintained by PowerADvantage will be reset back
to the approved settings at the next policy refresh interval.
-
Targeted Configuration Management -
PowerADvantages configuration management capabilities leverage
Active Directory's organizational unit structure to deliver
targeted configuration services to any number of individual hosts
within the IT environment. This enables administrators to apply the
configuration settings to selected hosts or applications. For
example, the Web servers running an organizations public Web site
should be configured differently than the servers running the
internal intranet. PowerADvantage facilitates the configuration of
each group of servers differently. Additionally, customers can
leverage Active Directory to establish a hierarchy of
organizational units (with a specific host placed in the
appropriate unit). The host will then inherit all the policies in
this hierarchy and PowerADvantage will resolve any conflicting
items in the policy and determine the proper group of settings to
apply to the individual host.
-
Detailed Compliance Reports - PowerADvantage
helps ensure that all activities performed on UNIX and Linux
systems are written to the proper Active Directory logs. It
produces audit reports required by Sarbanes-Oxley, PCI DSS and
HIPAA, providing a comprehensive trail for auditors. This
simplifies the compliance process and reduces overall audit costs,
and it allows for the more rapid discovery of anomalies as part of
a sound security posture.
About Symark International
Symark International is the leading provider of systems access
management solutions for heterogeneous IT environments. Symark
PowerBroker enables granular delegation of administrative
privileges while restricting UNIX/Linux root account access. Symark
PowerPassword provides UNIX/Linux user account management along
with login and password security policies. Symark PowerKeeper
controls access to shared administrative accounts for servers,
applications, and network devices for multiple platforms. Symark
PowerADvantage extends Microsoft Active Directory's centralized
authentication, authorization, account access, policy enforcement
and infrastructure management functionality to UNIX and Linux
systems. All products offer a non-intrusive architecture, central
administration, accountability at the systems level and detailed
audit logs. Symark offers extensive expertise in enterprise
computing security, and its products are backed by unmatched
technical support. For more information, visit us at
www.symark.com.
