5 Minutes with Mike...

Mike Dodson, Director of Engineering, Namescape

Namescape extends the value of Active Directory and Identity Management from infrastructure burdens to strategic business advantages by providing scalable web-based directory solutions.

rDirectory redefines the traditional white-page / yellow-page application into general-purpose applications that are as flexible as Active Directory itself. The rDirectory website may contain any number of applications using virtually any directory-based information, while the role-based menu provides tailored views and capabilities for different audiences. Native Active Directory security controls each user’s logon, roles, and permissions, making security simple to manage.

rDirectory turns Active Directory into an enterprise-wide platform for securely publishing, accessing and maintaining information, including identity management applications, about virtually any directory-based corporate resource. rDirectory is popularly used as a tool for creating a custom website for Employee Directory and Resource directory applications. This flexibility is possible due to the provisioning capabilities within rDirectory, our flagship product.

You Asked… Mike Answers
Provisioning – What is it? Why do I care? How do I create the really cool stuff?

Q: What is provisioning?

A: "Provisioning is the process of providing users with access to data and technology resources. The term typically is used in reference to enterprise-level resource management. Provisioning can be thought of as a combination of the duties of the IT and HR departments in an enterprise where users are given a unique network access ID to company technology resources. The process implies that the access rights and privileges are monitored and tracked to ensure the security of an enterprise's resources."

Q: Why do I care?

A: "Simply stated, provisioning is the process of providing customers with accounts, the appropriate access to those accounts, all the rights associated with those accounts, and all of the resources necessary to manage the accounts. Administrators are often reluctant to delegate these provisioning tasks to others. Entering incorrect information can leave a user without the resources they need or can leave a user with elevated rights and privileges. This will result in, at best, a call to the helpdesk or, at worse, a security compliance violation. In addition, there often exists some complex and subtle nuances related to performance, security or other policies that are not easily explained to a non-administrator. With rDirectory, an administrator can pre-populate information based on user function, department, domain/OU or physical location and many other criteria. Using roles an administrator can allow more, less, or no modification of certain attributes depending on the relative savvy of the operator performing the provisioning. Although the administrator may not be performing the provisioning, they are in control of the process. Each user is provisioned exactly the same way, with exactly the access and resource they need, every time. Email and event log messages can be sent outlining the exact changes that were made and who made them. Administrators can offload provisioning tasks to HR, department managers, or a junior administrator and feel confident that the process is being performed exactly to their standards."

Q: How do I create the really cool stuff?

A: "Create Applications can create objects from templates; templates define the optional and required fields, how they are to be edited, and can pre-populate fields so that created objects are always initialized the proper way. Accounts can be provisioned with Exchange mailboxes, security and/or distribution groups or any directory relationship Being creative is the rDirectory way."

User Provisioning - Provisioning allows newly created objects to be assigned the resources, relationships and other data needed all in one step. rDirectory currently supports three kinds of provisioning; Resource, Relationships, and Data. For example, Relationship provisioning allows a newly created object to be linked to, or related to, other objects in the directory. The most common example of relationship provisioning is assigning new users to groups. However, the relationship provisioning mechanism in rDirectory is a general purpose mechanism that can be used to provision any kind of relationship between objects.

Exchange Provisioning - Upon creation, user accounts can be provisioned with an Exchange 2003 or 2007 Mailbox when user accounts are created. The mail alias can be auto generated using a variety of formats from the First and Last name entered.

Home Folder Provisioning - Upon creation, user accounts can be provisioned with Home Folders that are automatically created and secured.

By Judy Cleveland, Director of Marketing & Operations, Namescape Corporation
Contributor: Mike Dodson, Vice President of Engineering, Namescape Corporation