Centrify Suite 2011 Enables Comprehensive Control, Security and Auditing of Cross-Platform Systems and Applications

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb. 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Centrify Corporation, the leader in controlling, securing and auditing access to cross-platform systems and applications through Active Directory, today announced Centrify Suite 2011, the latest release of its flagship security and compliance solution. Centrify Suite 2011 boasts enhanced administration and privilege management capabilities for UNIX/Linux/Mac systems, expanded platform coverage and additional application single sign-on capabilities allowing enterprises finer grain control and auditing over an expanded set of data center systems and enterprise applications.

"Many enterprises increasingly make Active Directory (AD) strategic for account administration, for authentication, and as policy and event data sources used to demonstrate compliance," observed Gregg Kreizman and Perry Carpenter in the Gartner Publication, Market Options for Using Active Directory for UNIX Administration and Authentication (Gartner Research ID Number G00209086). They continued: "By using an AD bridge, the burden of provisioning (i.e., the time, money and effort of developing and maintaining the connectors) is virtually eliminated because the UNIX accounts reside and are managed in Active Directory (one of the most well-understood and ubiquitous identity repositories). Strategies like this (reducing the number of target systems and having the ability to "cluster" authentication and authorization target environments) are key to implementing IAM programs in a timely and budget-friendly manner. AD bridge solutions can also help an organization become more effective in meeting its regulatory obligations."

New Capabilities in Centrify Suite 2011

Centrify Suite 2011 improves the manageability of enterprise-class deployments and extends Active Directory security and auditing to an even broader array of cross-platform systems and applications. Centrify Suite 2011 includes new capabilities in the following areas:

• Enhanced Linux desktop management including Gnome Group Policies — Centrify DirectControl has historically enabled IT administrators to use Windows Group Policy to centrally manage configuration and security settings on UNIX and Linux servers, and was the first vendor to deliver Group Policy objects for Mac systems. With Centrify Suite 2011, Centrify is now delivering the industry's most comprehensive set of Group Policies for Linux desktops. For example, Centrify is providing Gnome Group Policies that enable administrators to control system, desktop, and the common application settings and can be applied on Red Hat 5, CentOS 5, Scientific Linux 5, Fedora 11, Debian 5, Ubuntu 10, Novell SLED 11, OpenSuSE 11 and newer OS platforms.
• Enhanced desktop management features for Mac OS X — with historically the most comprehensive set of desktop lockdown capabilities for Apple Mac systems, Centrify Suite 2011 uniquely adds policies for managing Mac App store access, mounting of network shares at login, and much more.
• Centralized local UNIX and Linux account management with Centrify DirectManage — IT administrators can now use Centrify DirectManage to centrally create, manage and delete local UNIX and Linux accounts and groups whether the systems have been joined to Active Directory or not. Administrators can also use this centralized console to easily "map" local users to an AD user and enforce AD password authentication and password policies for local accounts.
• Expanded platform support for operating systems  — Centrify Suite 2011 adds support for 19 new versions of UNIX and Linux, making the total number of platforms supported by the Centrify Suite to be greater than 280 — the largest number of platforms supported by any vendor that extends Active Directory to non-Microsoft systems. New operating support includes:
  • Fedora 14 (32 and 64 bit)
  • IBM AIX 7.1
  • Mandriva 2010.2 One
  • OpenSUSE 11.4
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.9 and 5.6 (32 and 64 bit)
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5.6 (32 and 64 bit)
  • Scientific Linux 6.0 (32 and 64 bit)
  • Ubuntu Desktop 10.10 (32 and 64 bit)
  • Ubuntu Server 10.10 (32 and 64 bit)

• Enhanced IBM AIX support — Centrify Suite 2011 supports the newest version of the AIX operating system (version 7.1), and organizations that use AIX now have support for storing and managing more AIX extended attributes including the Capabilities attributes inside Active Directory.
• Enterprise-class Dynamic Domain Controller and DNS Selection — the Centrify agent is the first in class to include Dynamic Domain Controller and DNS Selection for built-in intelligence, resiliency and tolerance for the real-world environments of the largest enterprises. This allows the Centrify agent at login-time to auto-discover, assess and determine the right domain controller and DNS server to utilize based on overall health, responsiveness and availability. This makes Centrify by far the most resilient and reliable choice for ensuring successful and quick integration with Active Directory.
• SAP NetWeaver Support — single sign-on support for SAP NetWeaver is added to Centrify's previous support for SAG GUI. Centrify delivers support for not only NetWeaver running on UNIX and Linux systems but also deployments of NetWeaver on Windows Servers.
• Centrify DirectSecure enhancements — Centrify DirectSecure, a solution for securing sensitive information by dynamically isolating cross-platform systems and encrypting data-in-motion, has been upgraded and now includes support for Windows 7 DirectAccess as well as enhanced capabilities so that organizations can establish server isolation of systems that are using F5 solutions for server load balancing.
• Centrify DirectAudit Enhancements — Centrify DirectAudit, a solution for delivering detailed, real-time auditing of user sessions on UNIX and Linux systems and hypervisors, has been upgraded and includes support for an additional 30+ operating systems.
• Centrify-enabled OpenSSH Upgrade — Centrify has upgraded its support for OpenSSH by delivering a version based on OpenSSH Version 5.6p1. Centrify-enabled OpenSSH guarantees support for GSS Key Exchange on all platforms in order to establish trust between hosts, a feature which is not part of the standard OpenSSH distribution. Centrify also fully supports the use of SSH provided by operating system vendors, as well as commercial SSH solutions, and provides Centrify-enabled OpenSSH as an install option and convenience.

"Organizations are becoming very aware of the regulatory and efficiency benefits in consolidating to a single identity repository such as Active Directory," said Frank Cabri, vice president of marketing at Centrify. "With Centrify Suite 2011 Centrify is proud to extend its lead in delivering the most enterprise-class suite of solutions for Active Directory-centric identity consolidation and privileged identity management."

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 enables organizations to strengthen security, enhance regulatory compliance initiatives, reduce IT expense and complexity, and improve end-user productivity. 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.

Price and Availability

Centrify Suite 2011 is available now. The Centrify Suite is licensed on a per server basis and starts at $350 per server and $60 per workstation.

About Centrify

Centrify delivers integrated software solutions that centrally control, secure and audit access to cross-platform systems and applications by leveraging the established infrastructure of Microsoft Active Directory. Over 3000 organizations 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 www.centrify.com.

Centrify and DirectControl are registered trademarks and Centrify Suite, DirectAudit, DirectSecure and DirectAuthorize are trademarks of Centrify Corporation. Other names used in this document are trademarks of their respective companies.

SOURCE Centrify Corporation