COSuser Identity
management and user provisioning for Unix, Linux and Microsoft
Windows®
COSuser is an advanced user provisioning solution, providing
centralized user administration, password synchronization, password
strength control and web browser based self-service capabilities.
Used by enterprises with an IT infrastructure incorporating
Unix and/or Linux servers, most often together with Microsoft
Windows®, it is a key component for end-to-end identity management
services. It features inbuilt interoperability with metadirectory
services and an open technical design to support integration
with other components – such as Web access-control products.
It provides the following major benefits:
- Reduced administration costs. The traditional manual
methods of registering or de-registering employees and contractors
across all the relevant elements of an IT infrastructure is
a very time consuming task, involving many different individuals.
A request to add a new user, for instance, may need to pass
through many groups of administrators, with each expert or
system administrator doing their bit to register the user
for the software for which they are responsible.
- It is
not unusual for one full time employee to be occupied in user
management for every 500 staff employed by an organization.
COSuser automates the process from a central point
in the network, completely removing the need for manual registration.
This is made yet more efficient through COSuser's web
browser based self-service capabilities.
- Improved security. It is not uncommon for employees
or contractors leaving an organization to retain their access
rights to all or some of the applications long after their
departure. By centralizing user administration, leavers can
be disabled from the entire network in minutes. IT Services
are then able to ensure that only those users who should have
access to an application have those rights, and at the appropriate
level of access.
- COSuser also provides
for password strength control and password synchronization.
Instead of having many passwords to remember, users are given
one strong password that can be enforced and cycled frequently.
The password can then be synchronized across all operating
systems, applications and databases to which the user has
access.
- Service level improvement. Adding new
users to the
infrastructure takes time, as many departments are involved.
It is not uncommon for a new hire to wait days or even weeks
for all accounts to be set-up. Little upsets a user department
more than having to wait until a new employee can be productive.
COSuser, through centralized administration and web
browser based self-service, allows new employees to be fully
effective immediately on joining the organization.
- Legislative compliance. Recent
and impending legislation,
such as Sarbanes-Oxley in the USA and the European Directives,
focuses on ensuring that financial and confidential personal
information is not compromised. COSuser provides control over
who is granted access to what, along with comprehensive auditing
for company officers to prove due diligence in their pursuit
of compliance.
- More efficient help-desk. Depending on the organization,
user account or password related issues can make up to 50%
of all help-desk calls. COSuser, by providing a centralized
repository of all user information, provides help-desk with
a single point of information for a quicker response.
- Password strength control and
synchronization reduces the number of passwords a user has to
remember, so further reducing
the number of calls. Web browser based self-service allows
users to request accounts and shares, change passwords and
automatically issue challenge/response questions to validate
users. The net effect is a potentially dramatic decrease in
the number of help-desk calls, and a quicker time to resolution
of those that remain.
Architecture overview
- Follow this link for an
overview
of COSuser's architecture
Other sources of information
- Further information on the business benefits of user
provisioning and how to calculate your possible Return on Investment (RoI) if
you were to procure such software is available in the the resource library.
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