FISMA 
By Greg Shields
Comprehensive suite helps IT pros manage Active Directory.
Comprehensive suite helps IT pros manage Active Directory.
Our industry has long suffered from an interesting yet potentially dangerous paradox. Its activities can be broken down into two discrete halves: building things and maintaining things. For good reason, our most experienced professionals get tasked with building things: new services, new servers, new integrations. Conversely, those least-experienced are usually responsible for keeping things running.
by Don Jones, Senior Partner and Principal Technologist, Concentrated Technology
Despite the growth of platforms like SharePoint Server and SQL Server, most companies still store most of their data in simple files and folders, on file servers, using Windows’ shared folders functionality to make that data accessible to users.
Review: Blackbird Management Suite
December 14, 2010 11:10 AM January 2011 - Eric B. Rux
Navigate a challenging AD environment
I love submarine movies. They’re exciting and full of danger because the sub captains go full speed and drive completely blind – like I’ve had to do with some networks that I’ve been called in to work on. The big difference, of course, is that a movie is a movie … and the networks are not. When it comes to managing your Active Directory (AD) environment, you need to slow down and make sure that there’s a clear picture of where you’ve been and where you’re going. Blackbird Management Suite helps you know exactly what is going on so that you’re not accused of pulling a Crazy Ivan. Let’s take a look.
by Don Jones, Senior Partner and Principal Technologist, Concentrated Technology
Who has access to what? What does this person have access to? How have permissions on this file changed recently? These and many other questions are common in the world of file and folder permissions management, yet Windows’ native toolset makes them incredibly difficult to answer. Privilege explorer, part of the Blackbird Management Suite (BBMS), is designed to answer exactly those questions – and many more.
by Don Jones, Senior Partner and Principal Technologist, Concentrated Technology
Most businesses today realize that Microsoft® Active Directory® requires a little bit of help when it comes to automating management, providing compliance-grade auditing and reporting, and managing change in the directory. Unfortunately, most of the vendors in this space provide point solutions: One tool to audit changes, another tool to roll back changes, a third to add workflow and change control, and so forth. That’s a less-than-perfect situation, because you typically have to install and maintain a variety of software agents on each domain controller, and have to learn the user interface for a half-dozen different tools.
