Blackbird Group Expands Blackbird Management Suite, Offers Integrated Lifecycle Management Solution for Active Directory and Windows File System

NEW ORLEANS, June 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The Blackbird Group today unveiled two new modules for its Blackbird Management Suite, the first fully integrated end-to-end solution for identity and lifecycle management. The new modules enable real-time auditing and compliance reporting for Windows File System — giving companies a single solution for real-time auditing, monitoring, compliance reporting and recovery for Active Directory and Windows File System.

The new modules introduced at TechEd are:

- Blackbird auditor for Windows File System: provides real-time auditing for Windows File Systems, enabling administrators to track the 'Who, What, Where, When' for any changes in share/file/folder activity and permissions.

- Blackbird privilege explorer for Windows File System: shows who has access to which files, folders and shares so companies can better understand the exposure of their sensitive information and intellectual property. And with seamless integration with the Blackbird Management Suite, administrators can instantly drill down on any permission to find out how access to a resource was granted and rollback any unwanted changes.

Blackbird Management Suite was first launched last year at TechEd 2009. The solution's unique integrated approach has been well received and currently deployed among global leaders in retail, finance, the chemical industry and government.

The powerful software suite seamlessly guides administrators through the entire identity and access lifecycle — from real-time auditing and compliance reporting to protection and recovery. As a result, enterprise organizations can enhance their data security and achieve compliance, without putting a strain on their existing IT resources and budget.

A single, native tool integrated dashboard provides a consolidated view of "WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN" for unprecedented ease and efficiency in identity management. For example, when an unwanted change occurs, an administrator can check who made the change, exactly what has changed (including before and after values), when it was changed and from where, all from the familiar native tool. And from the same interface, administrators can quickly roll back the change to its last previous state.

As a result, administrators no longer need to switch between applications and GUIs when following the identity and access workflow, as is common with other point solutions. This integrated approach helps minimize deployment costs and administrator training, as there's just one application to manage and learn.

In addition, the Blackbird Management Suite is the only solution to feature continuous backup and recovery technology for Active Directory, allowing administrators to easily roll back any object or attribute to any previous state right up to the point in time of the error.

"Blackbird Management Suite offers a unique integrated approach that simplifies compliance and management by consolidating and streamlining tasks in a single dashboard," said Christian Ehrenthal, CEO at Blackbird Group. "Extending support for Windows File System furthers our approach and is part of the natural workflow for administrators tasked with securing network resources and access permissions."

The Blackbird Management Suite helps enterprises deal with internal security initiatives and industry regulations (such as HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, and PCI). It centralizes and streamlines all activities required to provide true accountability for access and entitlement, including granting, monitoring, analyzing, reviewing, reporting and standardizing access. Sophisticated Active Directory reporting tools provide the necessary proof for compliance auditor teams, and ensure that business data owners have all the information needed to make proper, consistent, and timely privilege decisions.

Blackbird auditor for Windows File System and Blackbird privilege explorer for Windows File system will be shipping to customers in Q3 2010. The Blackbird Group is also working on companion modules for NAS devices such as NetApp Filer, which will be available later this year.

The Blackbird Group will be demonstrating the entire Blackbird Management Suite, including its auditing and compliance solutions for Active Directory and Windows File System, at Microsoft Tech Ed North America 2010 at booth 1243/1241, from June 7-10 in New Orleans, Louisiana.  

About The Blackbird Group, Inc.

The Blackbird Group is a leader in identity and access management. Blackbird's innovative solutions help organizations make the most of their technology investments and Windows infrastructure — with simpler compliance, streamlined governance, increased IT efficiency, and greater application availability. The Blackbird Group is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner with more than two million installed seats worldwide. Founded in 2002, the Blackbird Group is a privately held company. Corporate headquarters are in Manhattan, New York with offices located throughout Europe. For more information, visit www.blackbird-group.com.

SOURCE Blackbird Group, Inc.