Centrify Delivers Secure, Unified Access Spanning Mobile Devices to Mainframes


Centrify Updates IBM System z Support; Extends Leadership as First Active Directory Bridge to Support More Than 375 Versions of Mobile, Desktop, Server and Mainframe Operating Systems

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - Centrify Corporation, the leading provider of security and compliance solutions that centrally control, secure and audit access to cross-platform systems, mobile devices and applications using Active Directory, today announced availability of its Centrify Suite 2012 security and compliance solution for the latest Linux operating systems running on IBM Z Series. This new platform support, coupled with Centrify's recently introduced mobile and additional Linux and UNIX platform support, extends Centrify's unified auditing and access management capabilities to more than 375 operating system platforms - the industry's broadest range of resources operating on premise or in the cloud.

In today's heterogeneous IT environments, establishing accountability by linking access privileges and actions to named users is a complex task, especially with UNIX and Linux systems, and mobile devices such as iPads and Macs. While Active Directory provides a central repository for Windows accounts, authentication and user entitlements for other systems often reside in disparate identity silos or are managed locally system by system. Centralizing or bridging the management of these accounts with Active Directory is the preferred method by more organizations to meet compliance requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley, FISMA and PCI which state that organizations must limit access to business-critical systems to only named users whose job role requires it, and must audit and report on activity. Centrify supported platforms cover mobile devices, such as iPads and Android devices, to mainframes running Red Hat or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z, and hundreds of flavors of desktop and server operating systems in between.

"Red Hat is helping businesses consolidate workloads, improve system utilization, and maximize the efficiency of evolving datacenters on IBM Series Z and other platforms," said Mike Werner, senior director, ISV and Developer Ecosystem, Platform Business Unit, Red Hat. "We continue to work closely with Centrify to enable centralized, Active Directory-based authentication and access control for activity running on servers with Red Hat Enterprise Linux5 and 6. Additionally, Centrify helps our customers secure access and reduce helpdesk burden by providing single sign-on to JBoss applications on UNIX, Linux and Windows."

"Today, 80 percent of businesses running Linux workloads on their IBM mainframe use SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z," said Kerry Kim, director of product marketing, SUSE. "Our customer-driven innovation and impressive list of supported applications, including Centrify, help organizations deliver the flexibility, security and reliability mainframe owners need to serve today's business needs. We have worked closely with Centrify to enable this timely support, and look forward to our continued work as we introduce new innovative solutions."

Centrify Suite 2012 Update 2 (2012.2) now supports more than 375 versions of UNIX, Linux, Mac OS X and mobile operating systems. In addition to recently added support for iOS, Android and the latest Linux operating systems running on z Linux, additional operating systems now supported by the Centrify Suite also include:

- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.8, 6.2 (32- and 64-bit)

- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5.8, 6.2 (32- and 64-bit)

- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2

- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z

- Scientific Linux 5.7 (32- and 64-bit)

- Fedora 17 (32- and 64-bit)

- CentOS 5.7, 6.1, 6.2 (32- and 64-bit)

- Mandriva Enterprise Server 5 (32- and 64- bit)

- VMWare VIMA vsphere 5

- Linux Mint 12 (32- and 64- bit)

"Given the evolving, heterogeneous IT environments that exist today, organizations are challenged with having to secure user access to a growing number of mobile devices, server systems, and mainframe operating systems to meet security requirements and pass compliance audits," said Frank Cabri, Centrify vice president of Marketing. "While the adoption of new devices and IT resources changes, the user's Active Directory identity provides the consistent and most efficient way to control user access, whether or not those resources are running on-premise or in the cloud. Our track record of providing support for the universe of platforms, devices and applications that are operating today, and will be deployed in the future, is critically important to our customers."

About the Centrify Suite

The Centrify Suite lets organizations centrally control, secure and audit access to cross-platform systems, mobile devices and applications by leveraging an infrastructure they already own - Microsoft Active Directory. Built on an integrated architecture, the Centrify Suite strengthens security, enhances regulatory compliance initiatives, and reduces IT expense and complexity. The Centrify Suite - consisting of DirectControl, DirectAuthorize, DirectAudit , DirectSecure and DirectManage - delivers secure authentication and single sign-on, role-based access control, mobile security management, privileged identity management, user-level auditing for Windows and UNIX systems, server isolation, and encryption of data-in-motion for the industry's broadest set of heterogeneous systems, mobile devices and applications.

Availability

Centrify's latest release, Suite 2012 Update 2 with expanded platform support, is now available for download. For Centrify Suite 2012, customers can log in to the Centrify Online Support Portal, while new users can request a Centrify Suite trial. For Centrify Express 2012, the new release can be downloaded from the Centrify Express page.

About Centrify

Centrify delivers integrated software and cloud-based solutions that centrally control, secure and audit access to cross-platform systems, mobile devices and applications by leveraging the infrastructure organizations already own - Microsoft Active Directory. From the data center and into the cloud, more than 4,000 organizations, including 40 percent of the Fortune 50 and more than 60 Federal agencies, rely on Centrify's identity consolidation and privilege management solutions to reduce IT expenses, strengthen security and meet compliance requirements. For more information about Centrify and its solutions, call +1 (408) 542-7500 or visit http://www.centrify.com/.

Centrify, DirectAudit, DirectControl and DirectSecure are registered trademarks and DirectAuthorize and DirectManage are trademarks of Centrify Corporation in the United States and other countries.

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