DARE TO COMPARE

Quest ActiveRoles Server

Solution Overview Quest ActiveRoles Server can help you automatically provision, re-provision and de-provision users quickly, efficiently and securely in Active Directory (AD) and beyond. It can help you reduce the resources needed to meet your compliance requirements. Furthermore, with strictly enforced role-based security, rules to enforce IT Controls, Human Resources (HR) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system integration, automated group management and easy-to-use Web interfaces for self service, ActiveRoles Server provides a practical approach to user lifecycle management for the Windows enterprise.

Addressing Business Pains Businesses today grow and change at a frantic pace, making user provisioning one of the most time-consuming IT tasks. AD administrators struggle to keep up with requests to create, change or remove user access to their various network resources. They are plagued by complaints that employees must wait too long to get access to the data they need to be productive. At the same time, AD managers are hesitant to delegate administration too widely, for fear of losing control. Quest Software, Inc. has the solution. The [ActiveRoles Server] solution had the specific functions we were looking for already built into the user interface and did not require additional scripting in order to start using the tool right out of the box. In addition, it had the flexibility we needed to accommodate specific requirements given the various operational differences that exist globally. Mike Welborn, a consultant with SiemensPower Generation We Dare You to Compare A comprehensive AD management solution must protect organizations critical data by strictly enforcing policies and eliminating unregulated access to resources in a secure, automated way. Your partner for an AD management solution must therefore effectively address both infrastructure and business elements. We dare you to test our solution against other products in the lab. Compare the architecture, reporting and provisioning capabilities. Here is what you will find:

A comprehensive AD management solution must protect organizations critical data by strictly enforcing policies and eliminating unregulated access to resources in a secure, automated way. Your partner for an AD management solution must therefore effectively address both infrastructure and business elements. We dare you to test our solution against other products in the lab. Compare the architecture, reporting and provisioning capabilities. Here is what you will find:
Considerations Architecture Flexibility to drive business efficiencies Quest Software With ActiveRoles Server you will have the advantages of a true multi-master architecture. We give you control over the changes you need to make and keep you informed of the changes made by your peers. All in real time. ActiveRoles Server is tightly integrated with Vintela Authentication Services. This adds equity to your Windows infrastructure investment by extending its benefits to non-Windows platforms. In addition, ActiveRoles Server also provides deep integration with Microsoft Identity Integration Server (MIIS). Our interfaces allow you to significantly increase the speed of MIIS deployment and add efficiencies and controls to the MIIS provisioning process. Clearly, ActiveRoles Server is built to meet your needs across the entire enterprise.

Other Products With other products critical actions such as delegation and policy enforcement may only be performed on a primary server. This means that you may not be able to make some changes on your local server or that the changes made by your peers may not be visible to you. Are you willing to accept such architectural shortcomings and risk your productivity and customer satisfaction?

Quest, August 2006

Considerations Security Securing the environment and ensuring piece of mind

Quest Software By strictly enforcing operational policies and eliminating unregulated access to sensitive resources, we ensure the security of your business-critical data. We make sure that your administrators adhere to your organizations security standards while allowing flexible, granular access controls. We even allow you to perform ad-hoc compliance checks without actually running reports. This means that you can troubleshoot and investigate system issues quickly and always be ahead of potential policy violations. You will have the option to extend permissions assigned to your day-to-day administrators, help desk users or users accessing ActiveRoles self-service features to AD. In addition, by allowing optional synchronization of these permissions to AD, you can even allow users to access the provisioning system through the less controlled native tools. In short, by forcing users to access AD through the approved ActiveRoles interfaces you can consistently enforce permissions, roles and rules throughout your environment.

Other Products They may promote their product as a security and compliance solution, but if they dont have the core functionality required to support a secure environment, how can you be sure that your organization is protected? We challenge you to put their product through a test.

Enterprise Readiness Meeting organizations scalability, performance and fault tolerance requirements

ActiveRoles Server adapts to your changing environment. Automatic fail-over for Web interfaces and load-balancing between administration services take care of your performance and fault tolerance concerns. This allows you to focus on growing and servicing your organization, rather than managing scalability concerns. ActiveRoles Server tightly integrates with the AD DirSync service, which means that you see the changes made to AD in real-time. Our solution also engages the AD permission model. This allows you to make sure that both managed and non-managed domains are delegated properly. In addition, ActiveRoles Server permissions can be synchronized directly into AD to enable controlled access to native tools through the ActiveRoles Server. Our user provisioning solution does not require additional scripting or professional services, so you can start using the tool right out of the box. The ActiveRoles Quick Connect add-on module for ActiveRoles Server provides an easy to use wizard and an MIIS Management Agent provides the capability to import HR or ERP data through ActiveRoles Server into AD. By processing the data through ActiveRoles Server first, new accounts can be automatically created and entitlements such as group membership, access to applications, mailboxes and home folders can be granted based on the HR specifications such as department, city, country or even job title. Furthermore, virtual attributes can be used in place of extending the AD schema for data manipulation, translation and data storage. These virtual attributes are a perfect fit for provisioning requirements of connected systems such as mainframes or foreign e-mail systems through MIIS.

Can the alternative product meet your current and future needs? There are vendors that will offer to meet your immediate needs by creating a one-off version, but how will they support you after the sale? Are you willing to take this risk?

Critical Data Protection Real-time visibility into AD

There are vendors that will offer you products built on legacy architecture that do not fully support AD. You may discover that access to various properties is just not available with their tool or that you must go outside the proxy (to native tools) to perform a task. You may be forced to learn a proprietary permission model and manage a proprietary database for delegated permissions. Worse yet, you will be locked into their proprietary solution limiting your future options. Are you prepared to manage complex scripting or invest in expansive identity management software? Can you accept the fact that you may not be able to leverage the organizational data to create personal resources for users or apply policies for creation of home folders or Exchange mailboxes globally? This sound pretty risky to us.

IT Efficiency User provisioning automation, reduction of administrative overhead

Quest, August 2006

Considerations Compliance Support of compliance requirements and simplification of controls

Quest Software Conforming to legal or regulatory compliance requirements means much more than reporting on your compliance status. ActiveRoles Server is unique in that it provides the IT controls necessary to meet and sustain compliance. Specifically, we give you the ability to track administrative activities, manage changes to objects and perform compliance checks on line, automatically provision user accounts and the appropriate access, d-provision user accounts and deny access. With ActiveRoles Server you will have full control and will be able to document and demonstrate compliance.

Other Products Other vendors do not offer on-line compliance checks, management of object history or tracking of administrative activities. This adds costs, redundancies and complexities to your organization. In addition, other provisioning products do not offer the ability to automate access to entitlements including the granting or denial of user accounts.

Centralized Reporting Reporting that fits your needs

With ActiveRoles Server you can create management reports that allow the IT Management, AD architects and security personnel to get the data they need to make decisions. Our solution provides the ability to collect and report on data centrally so that you can be confident that a report on your environment represents a reliable and consistent view regardless of your location.

Other vendors may require you to manage two databases; one for the Microsoft SQL Server for configuration and the other for the Microsoft Access Database reporting.They may promise you centralized reporting however, you may find that you need centralized administration to run many reports or that your reports lack critical data such as administration activity therefore rendering only marginal insight into your operation. Finally, reporting with other products may be complicated and unstable! You may be required to rely on SQL Server for configuration and Access database for reporting. With these limitations can you effectively produce reports that actually meet your needs? If an alternative product does not have the full functionality to reduce your administrative costs and meet your compliance requirements then you are not achieving your goals. You may realize, too late, that the products proprietary architecture severely limits your scalability and performance options and you may end up owning a white elephant. The adage, you get what you pay for certainly applies here.

Return on Investment

ActiveRoles Server dynamically configured interfaces allow users, business data owners and help desk personnel to perform relevant administrative tasks on their own. This reduces support costs, while allowing you to maintain complete control of your AD environment. Add the compliance benefits our solution provides, and the value of ActiveRoles Server goes beyond IT. It helps the organization to rationalize IT and compliance resources and budget for strategic benefits.

The Company Behind the Product

Quest Software is a profitable, growing, international company committed to excellence in product development and customer support. Industry analyst, John Rizzuto of Lazard Capital Markets, recognizes Quests strong solution set: Quest has the richest product roadmap in its history and we are expecting major releases and new product introductions across all three of the companys business segments Forbes (5/8/06) In addition, Quest is the winner of Microsofts 2004 Global ISV Partner of the Year award and ranked Number One in the Windows Server Management industry by Forrester Research in 2004. We are the experts in our field, consistently delivering solutions that exceed customers expectation. We are a smart, safe and strategically imperative choice. But the proof is in the pudding. We are confident that you will select us if you test us in a lab.

With other vendors, you have to worry about support, their ability to deliver the next release, or carry you through your strategic goals. Are you willing to take the risk?

Quest, August 2006