Challenge
For many years we simply used the active directory users and computers MMC tool in Windows for all changes. After hiring some additional employees to assist with our workload it became apparent we needed better tracking, auditing and reporting. We used Manage Engine's AD Manager Plus which allowed us to track the changes but it is unwieldy, laid out in a confusing manner and in some cases just poorly written. It was inexpensive but we "got what we paid for" essentially. When our year with them was almost up I immediately began researching a different product.
Solution
Adaxes included all the auditing functionality we needed and the built in variable "value reference" portion of the administration console should be an industry standard for every IT product in my opinion. I wish Solar Winds would adopt something similar for example. The product allowed me to set it up to be as complicated or as easy as I need it to be for each category. The tutorials were sufficient to get everything working and it's MUCH faster than the Manage Engine product even setup on the same server. Our favorite feature so far is how easy it is to make "templates" for creating new users by using the rules section to apply something like "if Address = xxxx Main Street, then change %organization% to StoreXX" and "if user was created in organizational unit %ou% then add security group StoreXXGroup" We also like how much we can customize the display of the data on the web console.
Benefits
As with any product of this nature, a lot of the benefits end up being difficult to put an exact dollar figure on. It is immediately apparent this will have a very important impact on long term compliance and security. From getting reports to make sure our terminated employees are losing all access, to making sure the security groups are properly applied without user error I feel like this is something I wish we had been using for years. The slight cost increase over our previous product used is tiny in comparison to how much easier it is to train a new employee how to manage the accounts and then track they are doing it properly. I didn't even have room to mention this comes bundled with a full self-service Windows password reset system similar to the one I just canceled from Manage Engine called AD Self Service plus that I had been paying a large extra charge to use. That product didn't even fully integrate with their other product and the Adaxes one has the same functionality with "forgot password" links on the Windows logon screen in our domain.
Brian Capezio
Chief Information Officer
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