Centrify Delivers Unparalleled Control for Centralizing Management of Mac User Populations in the Enterprise

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Centrify Corporation, the leading provider of security and compliance solutions that centrally control, secure and audit access to cross-platform systems and applications using Active Directory, today announced the availability of a major new release of Centrify DirectControl for Mac OS X.  Centrify DirectControl for Mac OS X is Centrify's leading solution for Active Directory-based authentication, single sign-on, smartcard and group policy support for the Apple Mac platform.  It offers the most advanced set of capabilities for integrating and managing Mac systems with existing enterprise infrastructure to reduce costs and improve security.

Already available for other platforms such as UNIX, DirectControl is an integrated component of Centrify Suite 2012, the latest release of Centrify's security and compliance solution for controlling, securing and auditing access to cross-platform systems and applications using Active Directory.  Newly added features in DirectControl for Mac OS X include support for automated digital certificate enrollment, additional smart card support specific to the U.S. Federal government market, enhanced Apple FileVault Full Disk encryption support, advanced printer management, and additional desktop lockdown capabilities.

"By choice or by employee demand, organizations today are increasingly being required to support the Mac platform as yet another desktop or laptop within their IT environment," said Frank Cabri, Centrify VP of Marketing.  "Centrify was the first vendor to deliver Group Policy support for the Mac, and now with this major update to our DirectControl for Mac OS X solution organizations will find it even easier to leverage Active Directory for centralized administration and management of their growing Mac populations."

New capabilities of DirectControl for Mac OS X include:

• Support for automated digital certificate enrollment to facilitate wireless and network access in enterprise environments.  DirectControl now automatically determines if Windows Group Policy requires a machine certificate to be present.  If so, the Mac automatically requests, downloads and installs a machine certificate, making it available for services such as 802.1x and VPN.  When the certificates expire, DirectControl automatically renews and updates the certificate.
• Enhanced smart card support for Apple Mac OS X versions 10.7 and 10.6 for the CAC, CACNG, and PIV smart cards, including the Oberthur ID One 128 v 5.5 Dual Smart Card.  This enables government agencies to support smart card authentication on their Mac systems that use Apple's 10.7 "Lion" operating system.
• Enhanced OCSP (Online Certificate Status Protocol) support.  Customers now have a simpler OCSP GUI interface that enables custom configuration of the certificate validation process. 
• Compatibility with Apple's FileVault 2 Full Disk Encryption.  FileVault 2 Full Disk Encryption allows customers to secure their Macs in the event of loss or theft by making the disk unreadable to anyone without proper credentials.  Now Active Directory credentials can be used to unlock an encrypted disk.
• Improved printer management support on the Mac.  Customers now have the ability to assign users to printer groups on the local Mac.  This allows users to stop and restart the print queue and create their own printer definition files if required.
• Support for restricting user logon access.  Using Centrify's patented Zones technology, Macs can be configured to allow only certain users or groups to log on.  This can be used to define certain Macs as "Executive Access," where only a single employee can log on.  It is also ideal for implementing departmental level Mac solutions where only members of a given department can log in.

Availability and Pricing

DirectControl for Mac OS X, part of the Centrify Suite solution, is available today from Centrify and authorized partners worldwide.  Pricing for DirectControl for Mac OS X starts at $65 per workstation.

About the Centrify Suite

The Centrify Suite lets organizations centrally control, secure and audit access to cross-platform systems and applications by leveraging an infrastructure they already own — Microsoft Active Directory.  Built on an integrated architecture, the Centrify Suite strengthens security, enhances regulatory compliance initiatives, and reduces IT expense and complexity.  The Centrify Suite — consisting of DirectControl, DirectAuthorize, DirectAudit, DirectSecure and DirectManage — delivers secure authentication and single sign-on, role-based access control, privileged identity management, user-level auditing, server isolation, and encryption of data-in-motion for the industry's broadest set of heterogeneous systems and applications.

About Centrify

Centrify delivers integrated software solutions that centrally control, secure and audit access to cross-platform systems and applications by leveraging the infrastructure organizations already own — Microsoft Active Directory.  From the data center and into the cloud, more than 3,500 organizations, including 40 percent of the Fortune 50, rely on Centrify's identity consolidation and privilege management solutions to reduce IT expenses, strengthen security and meet compliance requirements. For more information about Centrify and its solutions, call +1 (408) 542-7500 or visit http://www.centrify.com/.

Centrify, DirectAudit, DirectControl and DirectSecure are registered trademarks and DirectAuthorize and DirectManage are trademarks of Centrify Corporation in the United States and other countries.

Contact:
Dan Spalding
[email protected]
(408) 960-9297

SOURCE Centrify Corporation