BindView tackles Active Directory migrations
Offering brings security, configuration reporting to Windows 2000 directory.
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HOUSTON - Now that its acquisition of former rival Entevo is completed, BindView is again focusing its efforts on tools to help IT executives cut through the clutter of migrating to Windows 2000 and Active Directory.
Next week, the company will unveil two products for its line of "bv" management and migration tools. With bv-Control for Active Directory 1.0 the company is drawing on its proven success with similar tools for managing NetWare and Windows NT environments to bring security and configuration reporting capabilities to Active Directory.
Also, the company is releasing bv-Admin for Win 2000 Migration 3.5, an Entevo product Bindview is putting under its "bv" banner. The tool helps corporations clean up and consolidate their Windows NT domains for the move to Win 2000.
BindView, FastLane Technologies, NetIQ and Aelita are all rushing to meet the needs of customers moving to Active Directory.
"These products are all similar and you have to get to the details to find out what is best for any given enterprise," says Phillip Mendoza, an analyst with IDC, a market research firm in Framingham, Mass. "The good thing with BindView is that they have migration and strong reporting products that go hand-in-hand and can be managed from a single console."
For Active Directory, BindView has developed query-based reporting tools for tracking the progress of migrations and gauging their success. What bv-Control for Active Directory does is treat the directory like a database, allowing users to run queries. A key feature is its Policy Assessment tool, which can check security policies on files, groups and containers. For example, an assessment can be run on a single file within the directory to discover every user who has access to that file.
The collection of tools also provides checks for adherence to security configuration policies once the migration is complete.
However, the package focuses more on reporting than analysis, an imbalance BindView will address in the next release of the product.
"What we're doing is making it easy to ask questions about your environment," says Dan Hurley, BindView's segment manager for platforms and directories. "The focus is to reduce risks."
With bv-Admin for Win 2000 Migration 3.5, BindView is repackaging Entevo's Direct Migrate. The tool lets users restructure and consolidate NT domains, find and delete inactive groups and users, develop migration project plans and roll back changes if problems occur. In addition, the tool can be used to transfer directory test models created in NT directly into Active Directory.
The tool also has a Web-based account activation component that lets end-users activate and check the accuracy of their own accounts once they are moved to Active Directory.
The price of bv-Admin for Win 2000 Migration 3.5 is $9.95 per user, while bv-Control for Active Directory is $17.95 per user. Both products are scheduled to be available in June.
BindView: www.bindview.com
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