Start-up aims to extend Active Directory

Centrify this week will launch its debut product, software that integrates Linux and Unix platforms and Java-based Web applications with Microsoft's Active Directory.

DirectControl Suite 1.0 gives users the flexibility to use Microsoft's authentication and authorization services, and policy-based management with non-Microsoft desktops and servers. The intent is to centralize directory administration, user access controls and regulatory auditing functions, and provide single sign-on.

DirectControl also can be used to integrate Web applications running on Java-based servers with the directory.

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Centrify this week will launch its debut product, software that integrates Linux and Unix platforms and Java-based Web applications with Microsoft's Active Directory.

DirectControl Suite 1.0 gives users the flexibility to use Microsoft's authentication and authorization services, and policy-based management with non-Microsoft desktops and servers. The intent is to centralize directory administration, user access controls and regulatory auditing functions, and provide single sign-on.

DirectControl also can be used to integrate Web applications running on Java-based servers with the directory.

"We feel that Active Directory as a platform has performed well for us, and we want to utilize it with non-Windows platforms," says Eric Kuzmack, IT architect for Gannett Co. in Silver Springs, Md. The company is evaluating DirectControl.

"Something like this takes the directory question out of the decision process for a particular application," Kuzmack says. "We can look at the platform the app runs on, be it Linux, AIX, Solaris or Windows, because we can now integrate those with the directory. So we evaluate the platform based solely on platform-related issues."

Kuzmack says one feature Gannett is testing is integration with VMware's ESX virtualization platform. DirectControl would let administrators log on to VMware with Active Directory credentials and perform tasks such as setting up a virtual machine or allocating disk space. That integration now is complex and Gannett is looking to rid itself of technologies it uses today, such as Microsoft's Services for Unix, which provide a bridge between platforms and the directory instead of true integration.

Centrify and competitor Vintela are filling a gap that Active Directory creates, which is that non-Windows platforms are walled off from the directory.

"Both companies want to position these as full-blown identity management products, but I'm leery of that," says John Enck, an analyst with Gartner. "They don't do synchronization, they don't do mainframes, they don't do a lot of stuff; but it does solve the issues of Windows, Unix/Linux integration, which is a lot."

DirectControl is made up of an agent that installs on Unix or Linux desktops or servers and a set of Windows-based GUI management tools that let administrators provide access to Unix/Linux systems and Java-based Web applications for users.