Quest Software has launched a set of Software as a Service (SaaS) Windows management offerings. Quest OnDemand will be hosted on Windows Azure, managing IT environments by leveraging Microsoft’s Windows Identity Foundation (WIF) and Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) 2.0.
Recovery Manager OnDemand for Active Directory provides backup and object-level recovery of Active Directory data. It is designed to enable scheduled backups without manual intervention, facilitating recovery of active directory data, the company said.
According to Quest Software, InTrust OnDemand collects, stores, reports, and alerts on event data from Windows systems, helping organisations comply with external regulations, internal policies and security best practices. Both products are expected to be generally available in the first quarter of 2010 on a subscription basis without requiring on-premises deployment and maintenance.
In addition, Quest plans to roll out a Windows Azure-based SharePoint site report offering, Quest Site Administrator Reports OnDemand for SharePoint, which will give administrators the ability to run overview reports on an unlimited number of sites across their organisations.
Quest OnDemand offerings leverage the Windows Identity Foundation for identity management, authentication and authorisation and are hosted on the Windows Azure platform for secure storage of customer data. In addition, ADFS 2.0 enables authentication by creating a federation between a customer’s on-premises Active Directory and the Quest OnDemand offerings, the company said.
Dmitry Sotnikov, manager of new product research at Quest Software, said: “Adapting to SaaS solutions will give them the security and management capabilities they need, while eliminating on-premises maintenance and minimising upfront costs.”
