The Active Directory-based integration solutions for cross-platform systems offer authentication, single sign-on, remote access, and more.
Centrify Corporation, which provides security and compliance solutions that centrally control, secure, and audit access to cross-platform systems and applications using Active Directory, has released Centrify Express 2012, the latest 
release of its free solution.†Centrify Express 2012 is a suite of five free Active Directory-based integration solutions that deliver authentication, single sign-on, remote access, file-sharing, and reporting capabilities for cross-platform systems deployed on-premise or in the cloud. Users can centralize identities to cross-platform systems and enable single sign on for a number of platforms and applications.
Express 2012 includes Centrify Insight 1.1, an application powered by Splunk, delivering out-of-the-box dashboards, reports, and analysis for UNIX and Linux users’ identity, authentication, and authorization data. Centrify Insight 1.1 adds the ability to monitor and report on *NIX user login activity for Active Directory and local users, successful/failed login attempts, and login methods including SSH, telnet, and su (switched user).†This system access intelligence ensures that only authorized personnel are accessing business systems†on-premises and in cloud environments.†The Insight application works with either of Splunk’s free or enterprise versions†and is available for download via Splunkbase.
Other new functionalities now available in Centrify Express 2012 include DirectManage Express 2012, which automates the discovery of systems, assesses their readiness to join Active Directory, and streamlines the deployment and integration with Active Directory. Serving as the central management point, the solution now adds the ability to upgrade and update Centrify managed servers to the latest release of Centrify Express, or to the full Centrify Suit
DirectManage enables administrators to centrally manage local accounts and groups on Linux, UNIX, and Mac systems whether or not those systems have been joined to Active Directory. Administrators can also create, edit, or delete local accounts and groups on a single system or a group of systems.
DirectControl Express 2012 adds new support for HPUX 11.31, AIX 7.1, and more than 25 additional platforms to its current UNIX, Linux, and Mac support. Using Centrify’s CloudTools, automated Active Directory join capabilities continue in DirectControl Express 2012 to enable deployment of DirectControl Express in the cloud.
Centrify Express 2012 has updated its pre-configured versions of OpenSSH to the latest release OpenSSH 5.9p1 for remote access and file-sharing in an Active Directory environment. Centrify-enabled OpenSSH is not required, but provided as an option for customers and guarantees support for GSS Key Exchange on all platforms to establish trust between hosts (a feature that is not part of the standard OpenSSH distribution) and allows users to have the most current and consistent version of OpenSSH across their various deployed Linux platforms.
Centrify Express 2012 is available from Canonical through the Ubuntu Software Partner Repository. By using Express 2012, IT professionals can quickly integrate Ubuntu 11.10 servers and desktops into Active Directory for centralized authentication and single sign-on. Canonical has also certified Centrify Express to meet Ubuntu’s ease-of-use and performance standards.
Centrify Express 2012 can be downloaded at Centrify Express Download. Centrify Express is a subset of the capabilities provided by the Centrify Suite 2012 that layers on additional capabilities such as role-based access control, privileged identity management, user-level auditing, server isolation, and encryption of data in motion.
