NetIQ Directory and Resource Administrator 8.0 Delivers Delegation of Administrative Privileges and Secure Access Control for Active Directory

Market Wire, October, 2006

NetIQ Corporation, now doing business as Attachmate, today announced the release of NetIQ® Directory and Resource Administrator(TM) (DRA) 8.0. This latest version provides further essential protection for Active Directory (AD) and streamlines administration through secure delegation of privileges, task automation and simplified access control.

As the primary data store for confidential information such as Windows user accounts, Exchange e-mail accounts, and other applications, AD has become part of the mission-critical IT infrastructure. Excessive administrator privileges in AD -- common in many organizations -- exposes the organization to unnecessary risks and results in compliance exceptions.

DRA solves this problem. Building on core capabilities such as automated provisioning and secure delegation, DRA 8.0 empowers IT administrators to easily delegate permissions without creating unnecessary privileged accounts. By limiting privileged accounts, DRA 8.0 prevents users, such as application owners, from making inadvertent or unauthorized changes to AD. Lastly, DRA 8.0 delivers granular audit controls to document approved AD changes, track user access and support compliance reporting.

DRA 8.0 adds the following features and enhancements:

--  Temporary Group Assignment: Automated addition and removal of
    individuals from AD groups, ensuring that users are only group members for
    pre-determined windows of time and eliminating the need to track groups
    manually.
--  Extended Recycle Bin: A safety net that allows object retrieval
    without the need to employ complicated restoration procedures.
--  Custom Tools: Allows administrators to launch custom scripts,
    utilities and applications from within the console, enabling users to
    easily extend the capabilities of DRA.
--  Enhanced Enterprise Management: Improves load balancing and auto-
    synchronization of utilities and custom scripts across distributed or fault
    tolerant DRA configurations, ensuring a consistent user experience while
    decreasing administrator workload.
    

According to Gartner, many enterprises have applications and services running under the domain administrator account and have support staff and help desk staff with access to the domain administrator account. This is clearly not a best practice. Gartner further indicates that there are specific areas where third-party tools provide additional value:

--  Security reporting and auditing
--  Managing multiple-domain or multiple-forest implementations
--  Managing and deploying group policies
--  Monitoring the health of Active Directory
--  Delegating administration privileges in a non-hierarchical manner (1)
    

"Active Directory is a critical and powerful component of today's enterprise IT infrastructure. However, to truly manage it efficiently and securely requires specialized tools that complement and extend its native capabilities," said Chris Pick, vice president at NetIQ. "DRA 8.0 enables customers to maximize their return on their investment in Active Directory and reduce the burden on their skilled administrators."

NetIQ delivers several additional products that combine with DRA to provide a holistic AD management solution, including: award-winning NetIQ AppManager® to monitor and manage AD health and performance; market-leading NetIQ Security Manager(TM) for enforcing AD security; and NetIQ Change Guardian(TM) for AD for real-time notification and historical analysis of changes within AD.

Pricing and Availability

NetIQ DRA 8.0 is available worldwide today. Pricing starts at $16 per user. For more information, or to obtain a free evaluation copy, please visit www.netiq.com or call NetIQ: (888) 323-6768.

About Attachmate

Attachmate, owned by an investment group led by Francisco Partners, Golden Gate Capital and Thoma Cressey Equity Partners, enables IT organizations to extend mission-critical services and assures they are managed, secure and compliant. In June 2006, NetIQ Corporation joined the Attachmate family of companies, offering leading solutions in host connectivity, systems and security management, and PC lifecycle management. Our goal is to empower IT organizations to deliver trusted applications, manage service levels, and ensure compliance by leveraging knowledge, automation and secured connectivity. For more information, visit www.attachmate.com .

Copyright © 2006 NetIQ Corporation. All Rights Reserved. NetIQ, Directory and Resource Administrator, AppManager, Security Manager, Change Guardian are trademarks or registered trademarks of NetIQ Corporation in the USA and other countries. All other trademarks, trade names, or company names referenced herein are used for identification only and are the property of their respective owners.

(1) Gartner, Inc., Ten Recommendations for Microsoft's Active Directory in 2006, John Enck, December 22, 2005.

Contact: Jennifer Miu 650-228-5180 Email Contact