Review: Evidian Wiseguard

For: Easy-to-deploy single sign-on management product
Against: Not full identity management
Verdict: A good SSO product that needs the rest of the Evidian suite to realise its full potential

WiseGuard is one piece of the much larger Evidian Identity and Access Management (IAM) Suite. This product focuses only on integrating single sign-on into an existing environment. However, it does have some great features.

The most important of these is the wide array of strong authentication options offered by Evidian. These include smart card/X.509, USB keys, biometrics and Active RFID. Once the user is logged on, their other credentials can be managed using Enterprise SSO, which is all done through a simple graphical interface.

We found this product to be very easy to use. Setting up the server and deploying clients was a breeze, and all installations were guided by easy-to-follow wizards. The server setup even included an Active Directory preparation tool that made integration quick and easy. Once we completed set-up, configuration was just as easy. Using the intuitive administration console, we were creating applications in no time.

While this product is limited to managing single sign on, we found that it integrates well with an existing infrastructure. We had no trouble at all with management of user policy and provisioning application credentials is a breeze, no matter what the application.

We do recognise that this product is only a small piece of a much larger suite, but we cannot award full points based on just that. However, we will say that if the rest of the suite performs like this product it has the potential to be something really great.

Documentation comes in the form of several PDF installation, configuration and administration guides. These manuals are all nicely organised and easy to follow with many screenshots and diagrams explaining deployments and architectures.

Evidian provides a few levels of support including standard, extended, and customised. All levels include varying degrees of online and phone support, as well as access to downloads, resources, and a knowledge base.

At a price of £39 per user, we find this product to be slightly below average value for money. While it is easy to administrate and implement, it does not have the full characteristics of identity management.

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