MANITOU GROUP

MANITOU GROUP CHOOSES BLUEFINCH-ESBD’S AUDIT SOLUTION TO MONITOR ACCESS AND ACTIONS PERFORMED ON ITS ACTIVE DIRECTORY

BY THE WAY

More and more companies are recognizing the importance of IT audits. The benefits are numerous to improve security, optimize IT operations, or pass compliance audits.

This is what Manitou Group was able to do with the audit and access control solution offered by BlueFinch-ESBD. Renaud MARCHAND, Expert in Information Systems Security (ESSI) tells us about the project and the relationship between Manitou Group and BlueFinch-ESBD experts.

Long-term Collaboration

Manitou Group is a French company based in Ancenis in Loire-Atlantique. The company designs, produces, distributes and services handling equipment for construction, agriculture and industries.

The collaboration between BlueFinch-ESBD and Manitou Group is today a long-standing cooperation (more than 5 years), born from an interest in several IT solutions in the BlueFinch-ESBD product catalogue.

After prioritizing his projects, Manitou turned his attention to the need to ensure control of access and changes made on the Active Directory as well as on Windows file servers. A seemingly simple need that can be summed up in a question “Who does what?”.

Following the demonstration of the proposed audit solution, a POC (Proof of Concept) was conducted jointly between the BlueFinch-ESBD and Manitou technical teams to measure the performance of this solution within the Manitou infrastructure. “BlueFinch-ESBD was able to support us in this process by showing its availability, its listening and its expertise,” says Renaud MARCHAND. In parallel, a test of a competing product was also initiated by Renaud MARCHAND.

Once the POC was completed and the audit solution was chosen, it was deployed to the server used for the POC, which represents a significant time saving. The BlueFinch-ESBD technical team then remotely trained Manitou’s IT employees in best practices and techniques for an easy, fast and efficient handling. All this in just 2 days!

Renaud MARCHAND Expert in Information Systems Security (ESSI) at MANITOU

“The access and change control and auditing solution is very reliable. We have full confidence in monitoring our AD and file servers.”

A unanimously appreciated audit solution

After several years of practice, Manitou’s team of experts appreciates the following features:

Alerts on privilege elevations in Active Directory. These alerts help keep you informed about unauthorized activity as soon as it occurs and prevent a security breach.
The “Query” to know “Who did what?”. The feature provides an overview of what is happening in the infrastructure. It also provides a better understanding of what has happened as a result of problems with the right of use.
Reports are used to monitor Administrator connections outside business hours. These reports can be viewed directly from the main console of the audit solution or through a secure web-based console on a delegated basis.

Several points were decisive when choosing the audit and access control solution compared to the competitive tool also tested.

First, the solution is non-intrusive and does not require the installation of agents on the servers, which does not degrade system performance or cause downtime. Then, the logs are centralized because a single server is enough to collect logs and audit trails from Active Directory.

Finally, it is as easy to install as it is to use. A few hours of configuration are enough, which represents a significant time saving for an instantaneous, efficient and intuitive handling.

Today, the solution is fully mastered and appreciated by Manitou Group’s technical teams, to the point of having extended its use to another entity of the group.

“The access and change control and auditing solution is very reliable. We have full confidence in monitoring our AD and file servers. Its ease of use allowed the technical team to appropriate it very quickly and thus ensure good supervision of our business directory. “, concludes Renaud MARCHAND.