NetWrix Case Study

1. NetWrix Customer Case Study
Auditing Active Directory to Comply with State and Federal
Regulations
“Our goal was to meet both State of Maine and Federal
Security guidelines. NetWrix Active Directory Change Reporter
has met and exceeded our expectations.”
Brian Desjardins, Network Architect, State of Maine
Customer:
State of Maine The State of Maine’s IT department is responsible for the delivery of
Web Site: safe, secure and high-performing networks and systems that enable
http://www.maine.gov the State and all State Agencies to best serve the State’s residents and
Number of Users: 25,000
businesses.
Industry: State Government
Solution: Challenge: Auditing Active Directory to Comply with State and
Change Auditing Federal Regulations
Compliance
In order to comply with both state government and federal auditing and
Product: archiving guidelines, Maine’s IT department was burdened with the
Active Directory Change Reporter task of auditing and reporting on all changes occurring within the entire
Group Policy Change Reporter Active Directory environment. State and federal mandates required the IT
department to know exactly who made what Active Directory changes,
Vendor:
when, where, but within an environment that delegated administrative rights
NetWrix Corporation
across several administrative boundaries, centralized enterprise change
Phone: 888-638-9749
auditing was no simple task.
Web Site: www.netwrix.com
“We have a distributed organization with several administrative boundaries,”
Customer Profile:
said Desjardins. “Although we ‘contain’ Administrative Delegation, our
The State of Maine is responsible
mandates require that all will be audited for change processes that occur, and
for providing all of its residents and
we needed to audit exactly who was making what change, when and where.”
businesses with effective, safe and
quality public services and timely state
“We found that multiple Microsoft tools were available, but they were
and federal information. The state’s IT
cumbersome, time consuming and less intuitive,” Desjardins added.
department, in accordance with that
“We then looked for third-party vendors to fill in the gap (such as Quest
mission, is responsible for the delivery
of safe, secure and high-performing
ChangeAuditor), but found that many were cost-prohibitive or required
networks and systems that enable the
Microsoft Active Directory Schema Changes, complex installation,
state and all State Agencies to best
maintenance, or time-consuming attention.”
serve the people of Maine.
#1 for Change Auditing TM
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Simple, Lightweight, Affordable

2. NetWrix Customer Case Study
Solution: Cost-effective Active Directory existent. We have also enjoyed the top-notch service
Auditing without Performance Impacts and and support that NetWrix has given us.”
Infrastructure Changes Proven Results: Streamlined Compliance
That is when the Desjardins and the State of Maine’s with State and Federal Regulations
IT department discovered NetWrix Active Directory
“NetWrix Active Directory Change Reporter has
Change Reporter, an automated Active Directory
proven very effective in allowing the state government
change auditing solution that sends real-time alerts
to have administrative oversight into Active Directory
and detailed Advanced Reports that show exactly
changes, restore unwanted changes and proactively
who makes what changes, when and where. The audit
monitor for adverse behavior such as hacking or
reports and alerts show modifications made to Active
rogue administrators,” Desjardins said. “Simply put,
Directory users, groups, computers, OUs, permissions,
the product does what it’s supposed to, and requires
Group Policy objects and settings, AD schema, and all
low maintenance, provides transparent updates and
other types of objects, giving the State of Maine’s IT
upgrades and affordable pricing for the product, as
department the heightened IT infrastructure visibility it
well as ongoing annual support and maintenance
needs to comply with state and federal guidelines.
costs.”
“With NetWrix Active Directory Change Reporter, we
As a result, the State of Maine’s IT department now
now have a definitive way of auditing changes within
audits and reports on all Active Directory changes with
our Active Directory infrastructure, and can meet
ease and efficiency, and maintains the IT infrastructure
state government and federal auditing and archiving
visibility necessary to ensure compliance with all state
guidelines with ease.”
and federal guidelines.
Desjardins indicated that there were several features
“I would definitely recommend Active Directory
that made NetWrix his #1 choice for Active Directory
Change Reporter to state governments and other
change auditing.
organizations,” Desjardins said. “The product does
“In addition to affordability, Active Directory Change exactly what it says it does, and I am very happy with
Reporter’s ease of installation, advanced reporting my decision to go with NetWrix.”
and archiving functionality, and ability to revert
unwanted changes, made NetWrix the clear choice About NetWrix Corporation
for us,” Desjardins said. “We liked the NetWrix Established in 2006, NetWrix Corporation
tool’s excellent reporting features and low bandwidth provides innovative and cost-effective solutions
consumption, as well as the fact that it required no that simplify and automate the management of
infrastructure changes.” Windows networks. With in-depth knowledge and
“Deployment was quick (minutes) and went without experience managing Windows environments of
a hitch,” Desjardins added. “Our biggest concern all sizes, the company delivers solutions to meet
was load on our domain controllers and network complicated business requirements while fulfilling
infrastructure, but both concerns proved to be non- the best expectations of IT professionals.
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