SOX News

SolarWinds' New Version of Network Change and Configuration Management SolutionProvides Enhanced Compliance, Security and Administration Capabilities

(Dec 05, 2007)-- SolarWinds announced the availability of Cirrus Configuration Manager (Cirrus) 4.0, a comprehensive network change and configuration management solution providing automation of configuration backups, real-time change detection, and policy management. New features in Cirrus 4.0 provide unparalleled enterprise-level capabilities in an affordable solution.

Through new compliance, security and administration features such as role-based access control and permissions, user activity tracking, and device login credentials, network engineers can leverage Cirrus to not only automate time-consuming configuration-related tasks, but also adhere to compliance mandates such as PCI, SOX, HIPAA and other regulatory standards.

Cirrus 4.0 is also the first product from SolarWinds to enable customers to communicate in real time with an active 12,000 member community of SolarWinds users. Through integrated links to the SolarWinds community site – Thwack.com – Cirrus customers now have the ability to search product forums, post questions, exchange custom scripts and templates, and immediately access valuable knowledge and resources directly from the product.

Version 4.0 of Cirrus offers enhanced compliance, security and administration features including:

* Role-based Access: Cirrus now includes the ability to create multiple user accounts with different privileges, providing greater security and control. Roles allow users to log in to Cirrus and perform different configuration management tasks.
* Active Directory Pass-through Authentication: User accounts created within Cirrus can be authenticated via Active Directory. Network engineers can leverage their existing Active Directory infrastructure for Cirrus user account authentication and password management.
* User activity tracking: Network engineers can now determine what changed and who changed it, enabling compliance with regulations, while also fulfilling internal and external audit requirements.
* Immediate Policy Remediation: Immediate Policy Remediation not only provides network engineers with an automated way to quickly remediate issues, but also simplifies the configuration policy verification and remediation process for HIPAA, PCI, security and other policies.
* SNMP v3 support: With the addition of SNMP v3 support, Cirrus now provides enhanced security through secure SNMP communications and access to multi-vendor network devices. Additionally, Cirrus users can upload and download configurations for Cisco devices using SNMP v3.

The School City of Hammond has to keep a pulse on a network of 2500 users, 2 data centers, 500 devices and 24 buildings (of which 22 are utilizing VoIP technologies). The organization needed an affordable configuration management solution for automating network configuration changes, managing and controlling device configurations, and policy management.

“We have been a long-time Orion customer, so we know the high value SolarWinds products bring at an affordable price. One of our top requirements for a configuration management solution was that the solution didn’t cost a fortune,” said Daniel Snyder, network engineer, School City of Hammond. “Given our great success with Orion, Cirrus was a logical choice - plus, it automates everything. I am the only person who looks over all of our routers and switches, so I manage 500 devices by myself and now, with a click of a button, I can easily and rapidly roll out configuration changes. Cirrus is affordable and does the job we need to do and then some.”

The new policy features and support for SNMP v3 were also critical factors when selecting Cirrus. Security is an issue that School City of Hammond is very concerned with and they worry about kids getting a little too curious; therefore, it is critical for the organization to lock down the systems and audit who is doing what.

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