Centrify’s Tom Cromelin could hardly kept his excitement down (well, he’s a marketing guy — they get excited when the logo gets a new color) when he wanted to tell me about the new release of Centrify Express 2011. To get the full flavor, let me give it to you in his words:
“Here’s the context:
“People are excited about the benefits of cloud computing because it is dynamic: Compute capacity can scale enormously to support the growing demands of the IT organization (and shrink just as fast). HOWEVER [his emphasis], in order to manage these cloud-based systems, the security infrastructure must also be automated to keep up with the changes and to allow critical security and compliance policies to be applied consistently as every new system is initialized (and terminated) within a hosted environment.
BACKGROUND: Centrify strengthens ties to Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac
“Here’s what’s new:
Centrify Express 2011 is a new version of Centrify’s FREE Active Directory integration solution for UNIX, Linux and Macs. New in Centrify Express 2011:
• IT managers can now instantly and automatically secure new Linux servers hosted in the cloud.
• They can centrally manage and secure all their servers whether cloud-based or on-premise, and they can instantly include the new servers in the monitoring and alert capabilities of Splunk so they stay secure and compliant with regulations.
• Also: More operating systems supported; they can manage local accounts on servers, whether or not they are connected to Active Directory; updated open source tools.
“All of the above for free.
“Why does it matter? Organizations will be able to go a long way to securing their systems whether on premises or in the cloud without spending a nickel.
“They’ll be able to:
• realize the cost benefit and flexibility of cloud servers without increasing their security risk;
• save time and hassle by centrally managing the servers whether they are in the cloud or on-premise;
• more easily meet compliance requirements;
• have more choice of Linux servers in the cloud;
• enable single sign-on by using their Active Directory credentials to log in to server instances hosted in Amazon EC2;
• use familiar, versatile RightScale RightScripts and ServerTemplates to include Centrify Security System management in the Linux machine images.
“And it’s FREE. They’ll be using the Active Directory they already own, and Centrify’s technology is Free within its Centrify Express product, and Centrify is updating the customers of the Centrify Suite at no charge.”
Yes, Tom talks in bullet points. But it’s probably well worth checking out. And be sure to watch the video.
