Centralized management of Mac users

Centrify announced a new release of Centrify DirectControl for Mac OS X, a solution for Active Directory-based authentication, single sign-on, smartcard and group policy support for the Mac platform.

Newly added features in DirectControl for Mac OS X include support for automated digital certificate enrollment, additional smart card support specific to the U.S. Federal government market, Apple FileVault Full Disk encryption support, printer management, and additional desktop lockdown capabilities.

New capabilities of DirectControl for Mac OS X include:

• Support for automated digital certificate enrollment to facilitate wireless and network access in enterprise environments. DirectControl now automatically determines if Windows Group Policy requires a machine certificate to be present. If so, the Mac automatically requests, downloads and installs a machine certificate, making it available for services such as 802.1x and VPN. When the certificates expire, DirectControl automatically renews and updates the certificate.
• Enhanced smart card support for Apple Mac OS X versions 10.7 and 10.6 for the CAC, CACNG, and PIV smart cards, including the Oberthur ID One 128 v 5.5 Dual Smart Card. This enables government agencies to support smart card authentication on their Mac systems that use Apple’s 10.7 “Lion” operating system.
• Enhanced OCSP (Online Certificate Status Protocol) support. Customers now have a simpler OCSP GUI interface that enables custom configuration of the certificate validation process.
• Compatibility with Apple’s FileVault 2 Full Disk Encryption. FileVault 2 Full Disk Encryption allows customers to secure their Macs in the event of loss or theft by making the disk unreadable to anyone without proper credentials. Now Active Directory credentials can be used to unlock an encrypted disk.
• Improved printer management support on the Mac. Customers now have the ability to assign users to printer groups on the local Mac. This allows users to stop and restart the print queue and create their own printer definition files if required.
• Support for restricting user logon access. Using Centrify’s patented Zones technology, Macs can be configured to allow only certain users or groups to log on. This can be used to define certain Macs as “Executive Access,” where only a single employee can log on. It is also ideal for implementing departmental level Mac solutions where only members of a given department can log in.

Pricing for DirectControl for Mac OS X starts at $65 per workstation.