Vintela enables single logon, password mgmt. for Unix, Linux and Windows

You've got a smooth running Windows network. Now some exec decides that a Unix/Linux application has to be brought in as a business-critical platform. Not that they know it's a Unix/Linux app, just that they went to a conference and someone told them (or they saw a presentation) and it was just the application your organization needs to achieve some corporate goal. It just happens to only run on Solaris or Red Hat or SuSE or AIX. You know that it's fruitless to argue that introducing a non-Windows box will create some management issues, some technical issues and, possibly, some security issues. The only answer you'd get would be a directive to solve the issues.

Vintela wants to help.

Vintela is a spinoff from Caldera, a company that once sued, and subsequently settled with, Microsoft over DOS and DR-DOS. Now the company is trying to integrate other platforms into your Windows network. Small world, indeed.

The company realized that Microsoft was using the Kerberos technology to provide authorization services to Active Directory clients and services. Kerberos, of course, was originally developed for Unix platforms and was, early on, extended to Linux. Showing that Murphy's Law is right, though, the Unix/Linux implementations of Kerberos and the Microsoft implementation were not only slightly different but also largely incompatible.

Essentially, most Unix/Linux implementations use Kerberos for authentication and ignore the authorization aspects, while Microsoft uses authorization services heavily.

Vintela steps in to mediate the problem by not only standardizing Kerberos between the platforms but by also allowing all user management for the Unix/Linux platforms to take place within the familiar confines of Active Directory.

Vintela Authentication Services (VAS) enables you to efficiently - and securely - manage a single logon/password for Unix, Linux and Windows applications. Anytime a password is changed from within a local operating system password changing utility, the password is changed for all applications. Any applications that have been made Kerberos-aware can provide single sign-on. With VAS, Unix servers become full citizens in the Windows identity management and authentication infrastructure, rather than step-children who need to be hidden in the back of the closet.

VAS enables many existing Microsoft management/reporting/etc., tools be automatically applicable to Unix users. In addition, there is no client-side software to be installed and managed as with traditional single sign-on solutions, lowering the cost of installation and management.

VAS won't help if you don't have a Unix or Linux presence on your network, but if those platforms are there then VAS could be the technical aspirin for your management headache.

A trial download can be found at http://www.vintela.com/support/downloads/vaseval/

In Australia Vintela Authentication Services is distributed by Wedgetail (acquired by Vintela in July). It is priced at $US200 a server or US$25 per user.