Hitachi ID Group Manager Overview
Hitachi ID Identity Manager includes a unique technology for managing user membership in security groups. This technology is called Hitachi ID Group Manager. You can learn more about Group Manager in its own web site: Group-Manager.Hitachi-ID.com.
Overview:
Group Manager is a self-service solution that enables business users to manage membership security groups without assistance from IT.
Security groups are used by systems and applications to determine what a user has access to. For example, in a Windows environment, user membership in Active Directory groups determines what shares, folders and printers a user can access.
While IT staff generally understand security groups, most business users do not. This makes the interaction between business users and IT staff slow and frustrating for both parties.
Group Manager allows users to make requests for access using concepts they understand: which resource they would like to access (e.g., shares, folders), the access rights they would like to have (e.g., read-only vs read/write) and the person who will have to approve the change.
Group Manager improves user service, reduces IT cost and ensures that group membership is appropriately authorized before being granted.
Features:
Group Manager streamlines the process of managing security groups on Active Directory with:
- A Windows shell extension:
A shell extension is included with Group Manager which can be deployed on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 PCs. If installed, this component can intercept Windows "access denied" error messages and present an expanded message which allows users to open a web browser to the Group Manager application, where they can request membership in the appropriate AD group.
- Share and folder browsing in a web UI:
Alternately, users can navigate directly to the Group Manager web UI, which presents a view of shares and folders similar to Windows Explorer. Users can select the share, folder or printer in which they are interested and request membership in the appropriate group.
- A UI that guides users to appropriate groups:
When users select a network resource, Group Manager presents several options:
- Groups that have access rights to that resource, with a clear indication as to who owns each group and what access rights the group has.
- Nested groups, that the user might with to join instead.
- Nested resources (folders), that the user with to access instead.
With these options, Group Manager guides users to a selection of the appropriate resource and group.
- Authorization workflow:
All change requests processed by Group Manager are subject to an authorization process before being completed. By default, group owners are invited to approve all changes, but this routing can be replaced or augmented as required.
The built-in workflow engine is designed to elicit prompt and reliable feedback from business users, using:
- Concurrent invitations to multiple users to review a request.
- Approval by N of M authorizers.
- Automatic reminders.
- Escalation from non-responsive authorizers to their alternates.
- Delegation of approval responsibility.
- Reports:
Group Manager includes a rich set of built-in reports, designed to answer a variety of questions, such as:
- What users are members of group X?
- What group memberships does user Y have?
- Who authorized membership in group Z for user W?
- When did user A gain membership in group B?
- Who requested and who authorized group B for user A?
Benefits:
Group Manager improves security by ensuring that changes to membership in security groups are properly authorized before being implemented.
Group Manager reduces the cost of IT support by moving requests and authorization for changes to group membership out of IT, to the community of business users.
Group Manager streamlines service delivery regarding the management of membership in security groups by making it easier for users to submit clear and appropriate change requests and automatically routing those requests to the right authorizers. This makes the request process painless and the approvals process fast.