Review: Hitachi ID Systems ID-Archive

For: Easy-to-deploy password randomisation tool. Against: Lacks full password management features. Verdict: If randomised passwords is what you need, this product is your best choice. For full features, however, you may need a bit more muscle.

The Hitachi ID-Archive sets its focus on password randomisation.

With this product, administrators can set up password randomisation for sensi­tive and privileged accounts on workstations or servers. Admin­istrators can also use this product to allow authorised personnel or programs to view and use pass­words for these accounts, as well as control how many concurrent users or instances can use the privileged password information.

Installation of the ID-Archive is quite simple and straightforward. Once the initial architecture of database servers and prerequisites is met, the product installs in just a few minutes. After the installation, we set up our target systems and we were up and running. From the user perspective, we found the menus and interfaces to be simple to use and navigate.

This software can easily plug into the existing Active Direc­tory structure and completely manage and randomise critical system and service accounts with a simple click of the mouse. The ID-Archive also keeps a complete password history locked away to ensure total auditing and track­ing of used passwords. However, this product does not manage password synchronisation across the enterprise. This has to be done using a separate product from the ID product line.

Documentation comes in the form of several PDF guides. The quick-start guide details the initial setup requirements, as well as the complete installation procedure. There are also several other guides that focus on integra­tion of the system and in-depth configuration of the product. We found all these guides to be well organised and easy to follow with many screen shots and examples for further illustration.

Hitachi offers fee-based sup­port eight hours a day/five days a week, with unlimited incidents and upgrades. The fee is 20 percent of the license per year, with another five percent procuring emergency 24/7 incident response. Phone and email support is included, with support portal access available.

At a price of US$2 per workstation and US$8.25 per server managed, this product is a good value for the money. However, while it does have some nice features for pass­word randomisation and auditing, it falls a little short as a full pass­word management platform.

See original article on SC Magazine US

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