Likewise Brings Security to Mixed Environments

Company:

Headquarters: Bellevue, Wash.

Technology Sector: Security

Key Product: Likewise Enterprise

Year Founded: 2004

Number of Channel Partners: 20 worldwide

Ideal Channel Partner: Enterprise-focused solution providers

Why You Should Care: The open-source company Likewise Software has carved its niche by providing policy and authentication tools for Mac, Linux and Unix environments -- and integrating them with Windows.

The Lowdown: Executives at Likewise Software say that they bring all platforms together, in every sense of the word.

The open-source company, based in Bellevue, Wash., has already carved its niche in the security space with a host of authentication, auditing and management products that cater to, and integrate, Apple Mac, Linux and Unix platforms with Microsoft Windows environments.

And Likewise executives contend that businesses are increasingly adopting Mac and Linux platforms in their overall IT infrastructure. Meanwhile, customers with Mac and Linux environments are beholden to the same mandates but often have limited tools at their disposals that can manage policies and authenticate users, executives said.

"The problem is Microsoft has not developed the tools to work with these other machines," said Laurie Cansler, vice president of finance and operations at Likewise. "More and more companies, even smaller companies, will have these other kinds of equipment. If you have a lot of Linux or Mac [machines], then these group policies cover all the PCs, but they don't cover the other machines."

Likewise's flagship product, Likewise Enterprise, is designed to help users manage group policies with an array of reporting capabilities for external audits and compliance regulations such as PCI DSS, as well as federal initiatives Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA. Those compliance mandates are huge drivers for Likewise Enterprise, due to the fact that companies face stiff financial penalties if regulatory agencies find their security infrastructure deficient, Cansler said.

"That quickly equates to dollars. It's an easy ROI," she said.

And as more companies scramble to enhance policy capabilities, Likewise is recruiting more software resellers, especially those with an enterprise focus, to provide consulting services to enterprise and upper mid-market customers.

"Our product is pretty simple to install in smaller environments," Cansler said. "What we find that in larger environments, [companies] need a lot of IT environmental cleanup to make it run effectively."