For: Comprehensive user password management. Against: Not designed for password vaulting or managing hard-coded passwords. Verdict: A specialised product for specific applications, but very good at what it does.

It focuses more on managing passwords from a user perspective. With this product, administrators can create password policy and allow users to easily sync their passwords across the many enterprise platforms. These passwords are then validated against SecurForce or by an external security provider.
Furthermore, changes are detected and applied by agents based on the Identity Server's rules and confi guration. This tool also allows administrators to slim down the number of passwords a single user needs.
SecurForce was simple to install and we had it up and running in just a few minutes. The installer includes all that is needed to get the product up and running, including the necessary web server. From a user standpoint, the password reset tools are also quite simple and intuitive to use.
From a performance standpoint, Proginet SecurForce does integrate quite well with the existing environment by plugging into systems, such as Windows Active Directory, RACF, ACF2, Top Secret, AIX, Solaris, HP-UX and Linux, and applications, such as SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, SAP and LDAP.
However, we did find that this product does not lock passwords in a vault or manage hard-coded passwords. SecurForce leans more toward identity and password management for users.
Documentation for SecurForce includes PDF installation and user guides. These are well organised and provide some confi guration examples. We found these documents to be easy to follow with a good sampling of step-bystep instructions.
Proginet offers 24/7 phone and email support as part of a standard maintenance agreement. Also available to customers is onsite service for deployment and installation at a rate of US$2,000 per day. Customers also get access to a support portal with a knowledge base and a FAQ section.
At an initial cost of US$10,000, we find the Proginet SecurForce to be an average value for the money. While it does have some excellent password management features, it is lacking in critical systems management and secure password storage.
See original article on SC Magazine US