* TNT releases Identity 2.5
It really is a much smaller world we live in today. I was sitting at my desk last week when the phone rang – it was Rob Ciampa, Trusted Network Technology’s vice president of marketing and business strategy calling to talk about TNT’s latest version of the best-named product in identity management: Identity 2.5.
It really is a much smaller world we live in today. I was sitting at my desk last week when the phone rang – it was Rob Ciampa, Trusted Network Technologies’ vice president of marketing and business strategy calling to talk about TNT’s latest version of the best-named product in identity management: Identity 2.5.
The “small world” part is that Ciampa was sitting by the shores of Lake Como in Italy planning where he and his wife would go for dinner. Why he’d want to spend a half hour on the phone with me is something I can’t understand – but he’s the marketing guy while I’m just a humble hack.
Anyway, he did want to let me know about the new features and improvements in Identity 2.5.
The last time I’d mentioned TNT’s Identity product to you the company had just released a Macintosh driver. TNT has now expanded that coverage to Intel-based Macs as well as Citrix Presentation Server and Microsoft Terminal Services. Other changes in the new release include:
* Increased enterprise scalability encompassing user and device auto-registration, integrated trusted networks and support for 100,000-plus users.
* Updated identity support including a directory wizard for policy, role and audit, LDAP Multiple Distinguished Names (DNs), Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs) and CSV and LDIF file import.
* Enhanced auditing capabilities including log report granularity, workstation registration and reporting, and protocol-based logging.
Identity, the product, is mostly concerned with authorization – controlling access to resources while tracking (and auditing) that access. It’s a three-component system – an appliance, a client-side driver and a hosted management platform. Deployment is typically a five-phase effort:
* Phase 1 Installation – Totally silent installation using Microsoft’s SMS or Novell’s ZENworks.
* Phase 2 System ID (SID) – Creation of a unique, unalterable hardware identification.
* Phase 3 User ID – Creates unique User ID (UID) working with Microsoft Active Directory or other LDAP-enabled directory.
* Phase 4 Audit – Every TCP and UDP packet on the network is tagged with the UID/SID of the generating user and platform, all done without altering the packet in any way, with a complete audit log being maintained.
* Phase 5 Control – Completely identity based policy creation allowing a range of coarse to fine grained authorization so that you can shield critical assets and isolate users and endpoints.
There’s much more that I can tell you but I don’t have the space, so head to TNT’s library and read the various papers and spec sheets. See why TNT can say that it “… provide[s] identity audit and access control solutions that establish pervasive identity, letting companies see, control and prove every user or group interaction with every computer, server, subnet and application.” That’s quite a claim, but one that it can fairly make.
