* Releases from Funk, Infoblox, Javalina
Today, I want to talk about three product releases that you should take a look at. The vendors of the three products have been mentioned here before, so those of you who read every word of every newsletter will have no problems. If you haven’t, then just head to https://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/nt/ and start reading; there’s only about 400 or so newsletters for you to get through.
The first release is from Funk Software – Version 5.0 of its pioneering Steel-Belted Radius (SBR) server. RADIUS, originally developed as an authentication mechanism for dial-in users, has quite successfully made the transition to being the authentication service for all users coming into your network from beyond the firewall.
While it’s more usual to see Funk’s products in the identity management newsletter (e.g., https://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/dir/2004/1004id2.html), RADIUS services can be very important to your network from a security standpoint as well as from the (sometimes tangential to security) identity viewpoint. Version 5 of SBR is especially interesting because of the new, enhanced and improved management and reporting features. Browse to https://www.funk.com/radius/enterprise/sbr_v5_ds.asp to see all the new features.
Also newly released to the RADIUS market is Infoblox’ RADIUSone server, Version 1.2. RADIUSone’s major claim to fame is that it’s an appliance – a combination of hardware of software that just drops into your network and is designed to be quickly and efficiently deployed even by non-technical people. It’s not better than the Funk product, nor is it worse – it’s simply a different way to implement the Radius protocol. Check the features of the new RADIUSone (https://www.infoblox.com/products/radiusone_overview.cfm), compare them to SBR and see which is a better fit for your situation. I’m sure one of them will be.
Finally, Javalina software has shipped ADToolkit Version 3. This is an upgrade to, and a renaming, of Javalina’s ADvantage product. It features new tools to move Active Directory users, groups, contacts and computers, in bulk and without writing scripts. See https://www.javelinasoftware.com/advantage.html for all of the new features. This utility can be useful for all Windows network managers but increases its usefulness exponentially as your network gets larger or more heterogeneous. For anyone faced with mergers, acquisitions or divestitures (and who isn’t these days), ADToolkit can save many, many months of tedious manual labor.
