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SECURE VANTAGE TECHNOLOGIES QUARTERLY UPDATE – May 2006
Greetings everyone and welcome to our first newsletter. This newsletter replaces the previous product updates mail and is intended for Secure Vantage customers, partners and professionals interested in keeping up to date with our product and the company as we grow. We plan to publish this newsletter every quarter to keep you all informed of product updates, new solutions, tips & tricks, partner announcements and general company news.
We are very excited about the solutions we are working on, several of which we introduced at the Microsoft Management Summit last month in San Diego. For all of you who attended the event and stopped by our booth, it was great to see you. Over 300 folks visited our booth in four days. In fact, we were so busy on Monday night that customers and MVPs started helping us out! We’re very excited with the attention we got at MMS and were pleased to have the opportunity to introduce our System Center based Security solutions. We look forward to continue working with everyone and delivering more security solutions for MOM2005, the newly named System Center Operations Manager 2007 (aka MOMv3) and the Audit Collection Service (ACS).
If you have any comments, or know of anyone who would like to be on the circulation list and is not currently receiving it, please send us email at info@securvantage.com.
We hope you enjoy reading this and find the information useful.
Cheers,
Jeremiah Beckett
President
www.SecureVantage.com
jbeckett@securevantage.com
If you’ve received this email in error or would like be removed from our distribution list please send an email to info@securevantage.com with your request.
Secure Vantage Update: Microsoft Management Summit Success, Vol1 Issue1 05/04/2006
In this Issue
- SCMP™ Showcased with CommNet for MMS
- SCMP Product Update
- Introducing REX™
- Heterogeneous Reporting Services
- Building in more Expertise
- MOM BootCamp features SCMP
- Partner Program Engaged
- Jays Joint – Tips & Tricks
- Looking Forward – Policy MP and ACS Reporting
SCMP Showcased with CommNet for MMS
The System Controls MP was recently accepted as a solution to support CommNet, Microsoft US Event Infrastructure, and was showcased during the Microsoft Management Summit last month in San Diego. We are very pleased to be working with the Event Point group that manages the CommNet environment and are excited to see our solution supporting extended Security auditing and reporting services for Microsoft Public Events. The MMS event was held between April 22nd and 28th for IT professionals interested in Microsoft Management Technology. Secure Vantage hosted a booth and showcased 3 new Solutions for value adding security services. The new SCMP Reporting Event eXtension (REX), Heterogeneous Reporting with eXc Software and our Policy Control MP all received great reviews and feedback. We had numerous MVPs visit our booth and remained busy throughout the event. We’re looking forward to the ITForum in November and sponsoring MMS again next year.
http://www.securevantage.com/News/News_MMS2006_CommNet.aspx
Product News –
SCMP™ Product Update
A small MP incremental update is now available (v1.2e.akm & v1.2f.xml). This update improves report load-time, and includes a few more Control rules, KB, views and reports for the MP. While this update is not required we recommend all customers install this update to leverage the view enhancements and reporting improvements. Please send an email to scmp@securevantage.com to request your SCMP update.
Introducing REX™
One of the biggest constraints in our current System Controls MP reporting is the length of time reports take to run. This is due to the lack of aggregated non-indexed data which contain the core data communicated in our reports. To improve this situation and provide more consolidated reporting options we have designed a solution that integrates all Summary and Detail reports, providing drilldown features and extended report filters. We’ve also drastically improved the run-time of our reports and can more accurately reflect the way we can report from the Microsoft ACS (Audit Collection Service) data being introduced in System Center Operations Manager 2007. The initial release includes reporting for AD Account Management and Logon Activity. We affectionately call the Reporting Event eXtension (REX) our “Security Event Predator™”! This solution is only available for SCMP customers and partners.
Heterogeneous Reporting Services
Over the past few months we’ve been working with eXc Software to deliver more comprehensive Security Reporting services for non-windows devices. We introduced alpha reports for Unix Logon Failures at the Microsoft Management Summit and are currently seeking customers interested in extending their security reporting to non-windows devices. We plan on extending the reporting to eXc Software’s virtual agent technology, consolidate with Windows Reporting and migrate to System Center Operations Manager 2007. Read the press release for more information……News Release
Partner News –
MOM BootCamp Features SCMP
Two MOM MVPs, Rory McCaw of Canada and Gordon McKenna of the UK, have worked together to build a 4 day boot camp training course for MOM 2005 to provide administrators and IT staff the necessary training to manage their MOM environments. I’m pleased to announce the 14th Chapter is ‘Security Monitoring with the Secure Vantage MP’. Our MP will get a 2 hour slot for overview and a lab introducing the essentials of security monitoring via MOM to all trainees. Rory and Gordon are also planning a book for MOMv3, which will also highlight our solutions. Check out the news update on our website for more information. MOM BootCamp News Link
Building in More Expertise
Secure Vantage Technologies has extended its relationship with world-renowned Windows security expert, Randy Franklin Smith. In partnership with Randy, Secure Vantage Technology now has exclusive rights to develop products for Windows Server Security and Microsoft Management Products based on Randy’s intellectual property. This is an incredibly exciting partnership for us as it ties our solution features directly to authoritative security content and best practices. In addition we will be integrating Randy’s recently released Security Log Secrets eBook and Computer Based Training into the System Controls MP and making available as standalone products. As a licensed reseller, Secure Vantage can now provide customers with both security solutions and training to leverage solutions more effectively.
Reseller Program Engaged
Starting in April Secure Vantage Technologies engaged a new reseller partner program targeted at Microsoft System Integrators with specialties in Security and System Management. This program provides the essential materials and training required to effectively distribute and support Secure Vantage Solutions. Resellers enjoy a wealth of partner benefits including sales material, training, event and incident support, and a Microsoft System Center based security solution set. Our reseller program currently extends around the globe and is growing well. We look forward to the continued success we have with our partners and the value added services we all provide to our customers.
Jay’s Joint – Tips and Tricks
- Event GUID Conversion: Sometimes MOM collects event data but is unable to convert AD Object GUIDs to text. When this occurs event parameters that look like text on the local machine will appear as GUIDs in MOM. As the information is also stored in this format it can reduce the value of canned reports that show these parameters. In order to resolve this a registry DWORD needs to be added to both the target systems and MOM servers in questions after which the MOM service should be restarted. Registry Key: HKLM\ProgramFiles\Microsoft Operations Manager 2005\Agents\ResoveGUID = True Please note that filtering on rules still sees the GUID and not the actual text collected. This has been verified by MOM MVP Rory McCaw and submitted to the MOM Team for which a fix was provided. Please see Rory’s Blog for more info.
- Resolving Report RunTime Error ‘User Initiated Reporting Error’: This is caused when the Reporting Server cannot return the report dataset results within the execution time limitations specified by the site or report. This can be modified in the properties of the report under Execution settings and Report Timeout.
- After installing the SCMP and updating the Computer Groups to include members, you also need to review the Logon Failure inbound data for filtering to optimize the user reporting experience. The bulk of the MP load comes from logon failure data and can usually be reduced in half after initial filtering.
Looking Forward
Secure Vantage has a number of Security Solutions being introduced to the market over the next few months and will be working with customers to fine tune the features of these solutions. Our new ACS reporting and our Policy MP will both be introduced this month. We are very pleased to be starting numerous initiatives with System Center products and are excited about the new opportunities the technology creates for managing Security information. Over the next few months more partnerships and events will be announced at our website. www.SecureVantage.com We hope everyone enjoys the summer, our next newsletter will be out in early September.
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