Avatier Newsletter Q2 2012

News

Customer Advisory Board Launched

Our newly formed Customer Advisory Board convened in Napa, Calif. for a Winter Summit this February. Keeping with the Board's mission to promote and improve Avatier's products and services through customer guidance and feedback from the user community, the first meeting led us to a new level of granularity in accessing Avatier Identity Management Software Suite (AIMS). You can read more about this feature in Tech Tips.

Two presentations kicked off the Summit: Salesforce.com's Tim Stanley discussed the history and importance of innovation in the workplace and KuppingerCole Analyst David Kearns provided his perspective on tackling today's IAM challenges. The Board comprises 10 customers and non-customers from a variety of industries. Over the course of the Summit, they were given the opportunity to use iPads provided by Avatier to participate in real-time interactive sessions, sharing their insights and opinions about Avatier's current products and services as well as the company's roadmap.

The feedback was extremely helpful, and it is obvious that the Customer Advisory Board will provide valuable insight to help the company develop unique and revolutionary changes in the market.

Viewpoint

A Passion for Innovation

When I started the company 16 years ago, I was determined to bring disruptive change to the IAM market. Too many companies were delivering products that had slight improvements — sometimes no real improvements at all. No one was trying to build a better mousetrap, only looking at ways to make it more complicated. I wanted a company and a set of products and core services that would simplify the industry in innovative ways. So we questioned, we learned and we imagined. This is more than a philosophy for me. It's a passion.

I've become a student of innovation, constantly reviewing what the most successful innovators have done to create disruptive change in their industries. You can see this in Avatier products, as well as in our vision for unique solutions to the problems that plague you. I recently read a book that I highly recommend to all of you: The Innovator's DNA. It's a great read because it provides examples of how some of the best innovators achieved their success. More importantly, it presents a roadmap for how we all can be more innovative.

It was obvious from our Winter Customer Advisory Board Summit that many of you want us to continue to look at IAM in new ways — to not only push the envelope, but reinvent the envelope. I'm interested in hearing more about the challenges you face. Questioning is one of the five pillars of innovation, according to The Innovator's DNA (I'll share the remaining four in upcoming Viewpoints); your answers will help us discover new insights, possibilities and opportunities to drive innovation in this industry. You can reach me at nelsonc@avatier.com.

As always, it's my goal to develop new solutions for the industry that you could never have imagined. Like I said, it's my passion, and it's one of Avatier's core values. I know you're going to love the results.

Nelson Cicchitto
CEO, Avatier

Tech Tips

Easily enable granular access to AIMS configuration screens!

By default, AIMS secures access to its configuration UI by using an Access Control List (ACL) on the /aims/config directory. Unfortunately, according to the Customer Advisory Board, anyone who is a member of a group associated with the ACL on that directory has complete access to the configuration of all AIMS product modules.

In the latest release of AIMS 9.0, the AIMS system administrator now has the ability to apply granular access control to all pages of the configuration UI, making different product modules, and even individual pages within those modules, visible to a select group of users.

Configuring granular access control is a three-step process. First, create groups in Active Directory for each page of the configuration UI you wish to be viewable by only a select group of users. Second, add those users to these groups, and finally, enable granular access control in the AIMS configuration. Granular Access Control even supports nested groups for additional flexibility.

To enable Granular Access Control:

• Log on to the AIMS configuration UI.
• In the center pane, click the "Access Control" link.
• Check the "Enable AIMS granular configuration page security" box.
• When the "Product Area" drop down menu appears, select the Product Area you wish to secure to display a list of the product's configuration pages.
• Next to each product page, enter the name of the group you wish to make this page visible to.
• To hide the configuration option from all users, enable the "Hide" check box next to the appropriate items.
• Click "Save" at the top of the screen to complete the process.

Now, access the AIMS configuration screens as a user in one of the access control groups you specified in the Access Control settings, and only the items you are allowed to see are displayed.