Citrix Password Manager

Complex environments are per se less clearly arranged and therefore tend to collapse every now and then due to (supposedly) simple things.  Since security has become an integral part of each and every IT, passwords are a good example for such “simple things”.  However, at least at second sight they turn out to be a much more complicated and cumbersome matter.

Nowadays it is certainly possible to secure sensitive assets with the help of auxiliary tools such as security tokens, one time passwords, SmartCards and so on.  The good thing about them is that various Citrix products, e.g. Access Gateway or XenApp, fully support them.  Admittedly, they work but they also create a certain administrative overhead simply by introducing additional products originated by different vendors.  Besides, you should try to see the issue from the user’s perspective: the less different products or vendors they have to deal with at the same time, the better they will adapt themselves to your IT.  As a matter of fact, there will be less room for human error.  Especially when it comes to using extra hardware such as dongles for example, users tend to overtax themselves with such devices: they are likely to lose them or consider them superfluous because they might already have stringent password policies to get along with.  Speaking of password policies, how many tries did you have last time you had to think up a new password until it was finally accepted?  The next question is, how often do you have to change your passwords according to your corporate policy?  Now, from this point of view it should be easy to imagine even the most experienced system and network administrator desperately losing track of all the passwords, and thus also his patience with such methodology.

Unfortunately, everything mentioned so far is just the tip of the iceberg and speaking of the user’s perspective we should not forget about that of a typical administrator.  The one who is in charge of a modern IT is directly exposed to his users’ wishes who in turn slowly but steadily demand more and more ergonomics and flexibility.  So for example, if flexibility is at stake, the question is, what is he going to do about mobile users constantly on the road who want to access their corporate network, any time, any place?  What about security?  What about the servers?  How can he, the administrator, adapt the existing infrastructure, e.g. for application delivery (XenApp), in a way that allows automated implementation of strict password policies?  What kind of tool could possibly make his life easier by fully integrating with his IT whilst providing remarkable features such as the Account Self-Service to enable users to reset lost or forgotten passwords or even locked domain accounts, all single-handed, no administrator involved?

One possible solution to suit all these needs comes from Citrix and is called Password Manager.  It lives up to its name by taking over the entire administration of passwords while supporting various set-up and implementation scenarios.

Password Manager tops off the Delivery Centre concept by smoothly integrating with Citrix products and providing functions such as the Account Self-Service, Password Reset via Web Interface or Hot Desktop, to name but a few.  Hot Desktop for instance, makes it possible to switch between different target devices back and forth, without the need to log out before doing so.

Now if you would like to simplify your (IT's) life, please consider asking us how to do so.