* DeviceAuthority 3.5 integrates with Configuresoft
I was chatting with some folks from AlterPoint last week about the new release of DeviceAuthority Suite (Version 3.5). This has long been one of the premiere network (as in switches, routers, etc.) change management packages available and the new version incorporates some really nifty enhancements.
David Williams AlterPoint vice president of marketing, Ryan Shopp senior director, product management and product strategy and Dana Marruffo, PR goddess were intent on driving home to me how successful 2004 had been for the company and how much better 2005 would be, especially with the introduction of Version 3.5 of DeviceAuthority. Shopp, in particular, wanted to emphasize the product integrations that the company has achieved with both previous versions as well as the current one. Out of the box, DeviceAuthority will interoperate with hardware and software from: HP, Cisco, IBM Tivoli, BMC, and SecureElements. But the one that intrigued me the most was the integration with Configuresoft.
Configuresoft, faithful readers will remember, is the vendor of Enterprise Configuration Manager – one of my favorite tools for managing Windows servers and clients. By tightly integrating DeviceAuthority Suite 3.5 with Enterprise Configuration Manager, the two companies have given Windows network managers the tools to monitor and control all of the users, applications, services and hardware on their network from one standard console.
The latest version of Enterprise Configuration Manager (which I talked about last fall – https://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/nt/2004/1011nt1.html) is described by the company as “a comprehensive configuration management solution that ensures operational compliance to standards and best-practice guidelines throughout a computing infrastructure.” Standards compliance and best practice guidelines, it may not surprise you to learn, are also the main thrust of the improvements in DeviceAuthority 3.5. So much so, that AlterPoint is now changing the category from network change management to NCCM (Network Change and Compliance Management).
I talk about standards compliance a lot in the identity management newsletter, because legally mandated standards such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) all mandate a high degree of knowing who (identity) did what, when they did it, why they did it and what data they did it to. Simply monitoring identity management, though, doesn’t satisfy the various regulations’ terms. For that you need to audit all sorts of things happening on your servers, desktops, routers, switches – pretty much everything that happens on your network.
Enterprise Configuration Manager handles your servers and desktops and now the DeviceAuthority Suite can handle your network hardware and the rules and policies needed to enforce regulatory compliance in all devices. Head over to https://www.alterpoint.com/solutions/compliance.html to learn everything AlterPoint can do for you in terms of compliance.
