Active Directory Cookbook Blog

PADL Releases XAD Identity Server

I'm not sure when this was officially released, but PADL's identity server, XAD, is now available to the public. PADL, and its founder Luke Howard, have a distinguished reputation in the LDAP field. PADL makes a variety of applications that help you integrate various services into your LDAP-based infrastructure. XAD is their latest offering...

"XAD provides a cross-platform enterprise identity management service on Linux. It is based on open standards and does not require a proprietary server infrastructure. All popular client operating systems and authentication protocols are supported, including Kerberos, LDAP, and Windows logon.

The result of three years development, XAD is the first open systems product to support single sign-on across Linux, UNIX and Windows with a zero client footprint and native functionality. Users, computers, domains, and group policies can be managed using familiar management tools. Domains and replicas can be provisioned with a single command, avoiding the complexity of individually configuring authentication, naming and directory services."
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# posted by Robbie (1/30/2005 03:09:19 AM)

Windows IT Pro Announces Winners of First IT Prolympics

"Peg Miller, associate publisher of Windows IT Pro, a Penton Media (OTCBB:PTON) property, announced the winners of the first IT Prolympics, sponsored by Microsoft and Culminis, the world's largest IT pro user group association. The contest was designed to recognize the most proficient Active Directory experts in the United States, while providing the IT community an opportunity to test their technical prowess. Steve Schullo of Hixson, TN, won first prize; Michael Royer of West Hollywood, CA, won second prize; and Nathan Casey of Santa Rosa, CA, came in third."
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# posted by Robbie (1/30/2005 02:38:54 AM)

AutoProf Changes Name to DesktopStandard Corp.

"AutoProf, an eight-year-old company that makes products extending Microsoft Group Policy, is changing its company name to DesktopStandard Corp. The new name reflects a shift in emphasis at the New Hampshire-based company that has been visible in the company's product releases since late 2003."
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# posted by Robbie (1/30/2005 02:37:03 AM)

NetPro CTO Gil Kirkpatrick Named Microsoft MVP

It is about time!

# posted by Robbie (1/25/2005 12:19:18 AM)

Namescape Announces Enhanced Employee and Resource Directory Applications for Microsoft-Based Enterprises

I got an early look at Namescape's product and liked what I saw. If you use Active Directory and could use a whitepages app to make your employee and resource information readily available within your organization, you might want to check it out. You can get the baseline edition for free! The founder, Randy Bradley, is the former founder of NetPro.

"Namescape Corporation, an innovative provider of B2E employee directory and resource directory applications for Microsoft-based environments, announced the availability of Namescape rDirectory 1.2. The software is available in three tiered software editions with enhanced functionality and simplified pricing – including a baseline edition available free of charge. Namescape rDirectory (formerly known as Namescape Active Catalog) includes tools for building and customizing catalog applications that allow users to securely self-service, use and find information for virtually any Microsoft directory-based corporate resource. With its latest release, Namescape has increased the ability of rDirectory to integrate with other applications (e.g., Excel, Outlook), websites (e.g., SharePoint) and external data sources. And, to help organizations jumpstart their move to web-based employee directory applications, Namescape is providing its baseline Community Employee Directory Edition free of charge – an offer not available with competitive solutions."
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# posted by Robbie (1/20/2005 04:16:32 PM)

Applied Identity Completes $8 Million Venture Financing Round

This is the first I've heard of Applied Identity, which is a maker of an identity-based access control server. They were founded in 2002 and just received financing from Bay Partners and Sigma Partners. Pete Solvik, ex-CIO at Cisco and now at Sigma Partners, will be added to the Applied Identity board of directors.

# posted by Robbie (1/16/2005 01:03:53 PM)

Market Assessment of the Identity Management space

Here is an interesting analysis of the IdM market.

# posted by Robbie (1/15/2005 12:49:09 PM)

Apple - IT Pro - Integrating Mac OS X and Active Directory

Here is a new resource from Apple on integrating AD with Mac OS X.

# posted by Robbie (1/15/2005 12:39:59 PM)

2005 Microsoft MVP - Directory Services

I got the news a couple of days ago that I've been given the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award for Directory Services for the second straight year. Looks like I can keep my MSDN Universal subscription. I'd like to attend the MVP Summit this year, but with my school and work obligations, I doubt I'll be able to make it.

# posted by Robbie (1/13/2005 08:16:16 AM)

MSDN Webcast: Integrating Active Directory with Unix and Java/J2EE Environments - Feb 1st

An interesting webcast is coming up from Centrify on integrating AD with UNIX:

Start Time: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 10:00 AM (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)
End Time: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 11:00 AM (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Description:
Have you tried to extend Active Directory functionality in non-Microsoft environments? Active Directory has many compelling advantages for organizations of all sizes. However, leveraging Active Directory features and functionality in heterogeneous computing environments is not always possible, and when it is possible it can be difficult to integrate and extend Active Directory features to non-Microsoft platforms in your infrastructure. This webcast will show you how to seamlessly extend Active Directory to non-Microsoft environments such as UNIX and Linux operating systems and J2EE/web application servers such as Apache, WebLogic and JBoss. Join us for this webcast and learn how to take advantage of Active Directory functionality throughout your computing infrastructure.

Presenter: David McNeely, Director of Product Management, Centrify

Find more info.

# posted by Robbie (1/11/2005 08:59:20 AM)

BMC Software to Buy Calendra

Consolidation continues in the AD management space.

# posted by Robbie (1/10/2005 10:05:14 PM)

Article: Tools spring up to harness Group Policy's potential

There is a lot of third-party development going on in the Group Policy space. This article talks about it briefly.

# posted by Robbie (1/10/2005 10:01:45 PM)

AutoProf Adds Centralized Control Panel Management to Group Policy

"AutoProf has released a second edition of Policy Maker Professional, a software product that extends the functionality of Group Policy to enable rapid configuration of Windows desktops across an enterprise for standardization and security purposes. The new Version 2.0 brings the entire Windows desktop within the scope of Group Policy management with the addition of 10 new Group Policy extensions that empower administrators to manipulate 10 major Control Panel categories for groups of users or the entire workforce from within Microsoft’s Group Policy Management Console."
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# posted by Robbie (1/10/2005 09:57:58 PM)

Article: Lessons for an AD–to–Windows 2003 Upgrade

Sean Deuby writes about some lessons learned from upgrading to Windows Server 2003 AD. Requires Windows IT Pro subscription.

# posted by Robbie (1/10/2005 09:54:44 PM)