Best Active Directory and Group Policy Product
Editors’ Best
GOLD
Blackbird Auditor for Active Directory • Blackbird Group • www.blackbird-group.com
SILVER
ADManager Plus • Zoho • www.manageengine.com
BRONZE
GroupID • Imanami • www.imanami.com
Why It Won: Blackbird Auditor for Active Directory—a simple tool that integrates with Windows' native tools—offers real-time visibility into Active Directory (AD).
"Physician heal thyself" gains new meaning when it comes to diagnosing AD problems at a medical institution. In this case, ActiveSync devices were attacking the University of Mississippi Medical Center's AD via an ISA server, says senior systems administrator Josh Munn. "This process would have locked all mobile device users out of AD if we had a lockout policy in place," Munn explains. He'd done his research on all the major solutions and was testing another vendor's AD auditing product but found it complicated and time consuming. Then he discovered Blackbird Auditor for Active Directory. The product, Munn says, "was simple, affordable, and integrated with Windows native tools," and he downloaded and tested it with no issues: "Blackbird was able to help us [see] where the traffic was originating, thus giving a path in which to troubleshoot." Munn likes Blackbird because it lets him "see a baseline of AD traffic and determine whether it is daily, routine, or a possible attack. It also allows me to track what changes are being made to specialized groups within our AD environment. We really enjoy the real-time notifications that it sends if someone attempts to change an administrative group." Would he recommend it? Indeed—and one might say it's just what the IT doctor ordered.
Community Choice
GOLD
ActiveRoles Management Shell for Active Directory • Quest Software • www.quest.com
SILVER
ADManager Plus • Zoho • www.manageengine.com
BRONZE
Change Reporter Suite • NetWrix • www.netwrix.com
Other hot products in this year’s survey
Centrify Suite 2011
DameWare’s NT Utilities
Quest Software’s Active Administrator