Centrify Makes AD Management Granular in Centrify Suite 2012

Centrify, the one company that looks to rule them all with Active Directory, has officially launched Centrify Suite 2012. The new version promises even better interoperability across Unix, Linux and OS X platforms in addition to new security features that can protect against unscrupulous hackers or users. The VAR Guy spoke to Centrify’s Frank Cabri, VP of Marketing, and David McNealy, senior director of Product Marketing, about the launch. Here’s the scoop …

The nuts and bolts of the release are pretty straightforward: Centrify Suite 2012 helps the enterprise enable single sign on authentication across all platforms, plus granular controls across all platforms for user privileges. Centrify Suite 2012 includes major version updates to DirectControl and DirectManage (now both version 5), DirectAuthorize (now version 2) and DirectSecure (now version 1.2). Centrify Suite 2012 also includes tweaks that allow IT admins to create “hierarchical zones,” which allow for “logically managing relationships” between the user and the platform. As an added bonus, DirectAudit 2.0 comes packaged in the suite bundle, allowing for a “head-cam” style view of user activities on Windows or a blow-by-blow log of user activity across all other platforms.

McNealy noted that a lot of what Centrify has developed was wrought from customer and partner feedback, and a number of new features were designed to meet the needs of increasingly more complex heterogeneous data center environments. Cabri, meanwhile, provided some color and channel perspective for this major release:

McNealy and Cabri both detailed Centrify’s commitment to the channel, with free courses and online training for partners in addition to a new rewards program coming with the release. Dubbed “ThinkCentrify,” the new reward system offers up perks to partners’ sales teams as they register deals. Prizes and other incentives will also be made available.

Partners ready to jump in and start selling Centrify Suite 2012 can do so now; it can be had on a per-server basis for $385 a server, or $65 per workstation.