SAP certification - It's important

Our Vintela Authentication Services (VAS) product just received SAP Integration Certification.

Why is this important? It's important because if you are using a component that interoperates with SAP and it is not certified then SAP will not support you if you call in with a problem.

As most of us know SAP is typically the first system where someone is provisioned and it is the kickoff for many internal provisisioning and identity managment tasks for new hires, retires, etc. You want to be using a component that is SAP Certified Integration. In fact, your company will probably demand it...

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Quest Software, Vintela, identity management, SAP

What, there are already standards for this?

John Fontana writes about how the new proposed Microsoft, IBM identity protocol standard is spawning controversy.

A protocol developed by IBM and Microsoft for standardizing the sharing of user identities between companies was turned over to a standards body on Wednesday amid controversy that it overlaps with similar protocols already recognized as standards.

I absolutely agree with the issue raised that some critics are concerned with WS-Federation’s dependency on protocols such as WS-Transfer that are not yet standards. I find it a bit difficult to want to build products that are not built on standards. Usually, it works the other way... LDAP V3 builds on LDAP V2 which builds on LDAP - all of which have already been approved as standards...

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identity management, Microsoft, federation, WS-*

New products for Active Directory and Exchange

We released a couple of new products last week. One that helps to recover AD forests in case of a complete corruption or to roll back a schema change. The other is for auditing non-owner access to Exchange mailboxes. Both pretty cool tools. Some information below...

Quest Strengthens Exchange, Active Directory Tools
Published: May 2, 2007
by Alex Woodie

Checking somebody else's e-mail is a fairly common occurrence. But what happens when the administrative assistant, for example, begins deleting or forwarding sensitive e-mail? Windows server tools maker Quest Software unveiled a new plug-in for its InTrust security and compliance tool last week that tracks and audits all Exchange mailbox activity. The Southern California company also updated Recovery Manager for Active Directory.

Quest's InTrust helps IT administrators by collecting, storing, reporting, and alerting administrators about activities occurring across their servers, databases, firewalls, and Web servers. With the new Plug-in for Exchange, managers can record all "unusual owner and non owner access activity," including which e-mails are read, deleted, and copied, and by whom. It can also track changes made to Exchange configurations and permissions. Quest says it's the first product that can provide such capabilities.

"Business-critical information is sent via e-mail every day, and when misdirected, that information could potentially harm an organization," says Jackson Shaw, senior director of product management for Quest Software. "We can now help customers prevent this type of problem, and also help them meet compliance requirements."

Quest InTrust Plug-in for Exchange 1.0 is available now. Pricing starts at $20 per mailbox. This price also includes the Quest InTrust Plug-in for Active Directory, which is required to use this product.

Quest also unveiled a new release of Recovery Manager for Active Directory, a backup and recovery tool designed to speed the process of recovering damaged Active Directory objects due to application or human error.

With Recovery Manager version 7.6, Quest now provides automated restoration of an entire Active Directory forest to a point in time before the corruption occurred, which the company says should greatly simplify the disaster recovery process.
Shaw says Quest is the first disaster recovery software vendor to offer support for forest-wide recovery. "Our customers need to ensure the availability of their Active Directory 24 by seven," he says.

Even Microsoft applauded the development in Recovery Manager 7.6. John G. Chirapurath, director of identity and access product management at the software giant, says the addition of forest-wide recovery makes Recovery Manager "stronger than ever."

Pricing for Recovery Manager for Active Directory starts at $10 per managed user.

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Quest Software, Active Directory, Microsoft, Exchange

Identity and Access Management is Critical to Operations and Security

Aberdeen Group has just published a research study on identity management that you might find interesting.

“Identity and access management limits access to an organization’s resources to just those with legitimate access. The fact of the matter is that without it, organizations are at risk. The larger the organization, the more resources are in need of protection, the greater the stakes,” said Carol Baroudi, senior research director, security, at Aberdeen. “Unless mitigated by automation, the greater the complexity, the longer it takes to grant and revoke access. Decreasing time to legitimate access translates to a gain in productivity. Decreasing time to denying unauthorized access translates to narrowing a window of vulnerability.”

Quest Software co-sponsored the research - after the fact - but as part of our deal you get free access to Aberdeen's report. Just click on the link above to access it. What I liked about this study is how Aberdeen compared "best in class" companies to "industry average" and "laggards" with respect to their implementation of identity and access management. Here's a tidbit:

• Provisioning - Best in class: Provision/de-provision in less than 4 hours! Industry average: 3 days or less. Laggards: 4 days or more.

As someone who spends money on market research this was the very first study that I (co-)sponsored after the report was written. Quest didn't get to participate in the research definition, methodology or surveys but I liked the results enough to sponsor it.

I hope you find it useful. I did!

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Quest Software, identity management