End-to-end integrated suite addresses security, IT efficiency and regulatory compliance

Mountain View, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 10/21/2008 -- Centrify Corporation, the leading provider of Microsoft Active Directory-based auditing, access control and identity management solutions for non-Microsoft platforms, today announced Centrify Suite 2008, an integrated family of Active Directory-based auditing, access control and identity management solutions that secure cross-platform environments and help address regulatory compliance. The solutions in the suite—Centrify DirectControl, DirectAuthorize, and DirectAudit—are built on a common architecture and seamlessly integrated to help organizations improve IT efficiency, better comply with regulatory requirements, and centrally secure a heterogeneous computing environment.

Centrify Suite 2008 comes in three editions: Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition and Application Edition. The Standard Edition consists of DirectControl and DirectAuthorize. Centrify DirectControl secures non-Microsoft platforms using the same authentication and Group Policy services deployed for a Windows environment. Centrify DirectAuthorize is a new solution (see related press release “Centrify Announces DirectAuthorize, Delivers Robust Entitlement Management for UNIX and Linux through Microsoft Active Directory”) that provides centralized role-based entitlement management for fine-grained user access and privilege rights on UNIX and Linux systems. Centrify Suite 2008 Enterprise Edition adds Centrify DirectAudit which delivers auditing, logging and real-time monitoring of user activity on non-Microsoft systems. Centrify Suite 2008 Standard Edition starts at $350 per server, while the Enterprise Edition starts at $750 per server. For organizations using web/Java applications, databases, or enterprise applications such as SAP and PeopleSoft, Centrify is offering Centrify Suite 2008 Application Edition which starts at $2,500 per server. This solution includes all of the capabilities and benefits of Centrify Suite 2008 Enterprise Edition and includes authentication and single sign-on for each of the supported applications.

“Because authentication and authorization go hand-in-hand, customers want and expect a single, seamlessly integrated solution—not a plethora of un-integrated point solutions—and they don’t want to pay the $1000-plus per server that legacy identity management vendors charge to add authorization on top of authentication,” said Tom Kemp, Centrify CEO. “Centrify Suite 2008 Standard Edition meets what the market is looking for in terms of an integrated, cross-platform authentication and authorization solution at an affordable price, and Centrify Suite 2008 Enterprise Edition adds unique user-level auditing to address more stringent security and regulatory requirements.”

How Centrify Suite 2008 Addresses Compliance
Government and industry regulatory compliance requirements such as SOX, PCI, HIPAA, GLBA and FISMA dictate that users should not share the root and/or a privileged account on computing systems where critical business or customer data is held. Instead, users should login as themselves, and only then gain privileges based on their role within the organization, and all administrative actions should be audited. For example, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) states in Section 8 that an organization must “identify all users with a unique user name before allowing them to access systems components” and in Section 7 asserts that organizations must “limit access to computing resources … only to those individuals whose job requires such access.” Furthermore, the PCI DSS states in Section 10 that “all actions taken by any individual with root or administrative privileges” not only need to be controlled but also audited as well. These requirements are common for other compliance and industry standards such as SOX, HIPAA, GLBA and FISMA.

Centrify DirectControl facilitates compliance by allowing each user to log in to a UNIX or Linux system as themselves using their individual Active Directory account and password. DirectControl’s patent-pending Zone feature provides further granular access control by restricting who (i.e. which UNIX-enabled Active Directory user or group member) can log in to which set of systems. DirectAuthorize is built on top of the scalable and robust DirectControl architecture and provides further granular delegation of what actions can be performed on a given system by a given user, and further controls when they can log in and how they access the system. This capability is especially important on UNIX and Linux systems, as those systems lack a simple and effective delegation model for administration. Personnel such as system administrators, DBAs, backup operators and helpdesk staff need an increased set of privileges to perform administrative tasks, including such basic tasks as backing up the system. Centrify DirectAudit builds on top of DirectControl and DirectAuthorize by auditing all actions taken by any individual, including those with root or administrative privileges, another key compliance requirement. Together these three integrated security and compliance solutions make up Centrify Suite 2008.

Price and Availability
Centrify Suite 2008 Standard Edition includes Centrify DirectControl and DirectAuthorize. Licensing begins at $350 per server. Centrify Suite 2008 Enterprise Edition includes Centrify DirectControl, DirectAuthorize and DirectAudit. Licensing begins at $750 per server. Centrify Suite 2008 Application Edition is licensed starting at $2,500 per server. The various editions of Centrify Suite 2008 are available now with DirectAuthorize currently in beta testing. Current Centrify DirectControl customers will be entitled to the Centrify Suite 2008 Standard Edition without additional licensing fees.

About Centrify
Centrify’s auditing, access control and identity management solutions centrally secure cross-platform systems, web applications, databases and enterprise applications using Microsoft Active Directory. More than 600 enterprise customers, including over 38% of the Fortune 50, have selected Centrify for its quick-to-deploy, easy-to-manage Active Directory-based cross-platform interoperability solutions. Centrify Suite 2008 comprises DirectControl, DirectAuthorize and DirectAudit, and helps organizations improve IT efficiency, better comply with regulatory requirements, and move toward a more secure, connected infrastructure for their cross-platform computing environment. For more information about Centrify and its solutions, call +1 650-961-1100 or visit http://www.centrify.com