Centralized Authentication for Windows & Linux

As small businesses and enterprises find their closets and server rooms filling up with Windows and Linux servers, a crucial concern has surfaced: how to handle multiple logon accounts for users. Small businesses or departments that have just a few servers rarely encounter this problem. After all, it takes a systems administrator only a minute or two to reset the passwords on a few accounts spread across two or three servers. As the number of servers increases, however, this chore becomes a growing burden for systems administrators and a hassle for users.

When businesses approach vendors for a fix to this problem, vendors typically offer a single sign-on (SSO) solution. (For a detailed explanation of SSO and centralized authentication, see the sidebar "SSO vs. Centralized Authentication.") Unfortunately, implementing SSO can be difficult and expensive. An alternative solution within a heterogeneous network—a solution that works well in many environments—is to centralize user account information. This solution differs from SSO: Users are still required to log on as they move between servers, but they use the same usernames and passwords each time they access another system or service.

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