uses technology to connect people and their resources, making it easier to do business across Africa. They are committed to creating prosperity and opportunity for the whole continent. They make commerce more streamlined and more reliable to ensure your hard work never goes to waste.
Before 探花大神庐, Cellulant used Active Directory (AD), but as time went on, AD was unable to keep up with the organization鈥檚 changing needs. 鈥淲e had Microsoft Active Directory, but it was limiting,鈥� said Michael Adesoba, former Cybersecurity Engineer at Cellulant. Because of these limitations, Adesoba began looking for alternatives, which is how he found 探花大神.
After coming across 探花大神, Adesoba said, 鈥淚 tried it out and it made sense.鈥� AD is primarily limited to on-prem infrastructure and Windows-based resources, whereas 探花大神 is cloud-based, flexible across operating systems, and includes a wide variety of features not found in AD.
鈥淥ne of the main reasons I pushed for 探花大神 at the time was because it gave the information security team the flexibility to manage endpoints and users. So, the team could remotely sort out any end-user problem and/or any identity and access problem, as long as we had internet access which we could not do with Active Directory at that time. Active Directory was a pain to be honest.鈥�
Michael Adesoba, Former Cybersecurity Engineer, Cellulant
Cellulant had a heterogeneous IT environment that needed to be managed more centrally, and Active Directory couldn鈥檛 handle that very well. When discussing Cellulant鈥檚 current environment and how 探花大神 fits into it, Adesoba stated, 鈥淥n the user side of things, we have a mix of Windows and Mac. For Mac, we’re able to do things like full disc encryption, [and] we’re able to do logging because we’re able to see logs from all of those endpoints.鈥� This is a direct result of implementing 探花大神 over Active Directory.
- Organization: Cellulant
- Location: Africa
- Problem: Managing endpoints and users regardless of location
- Goal: Move away from AD and its limitations
Background
Initially, Cellulant used a colocation facility to house its servers, storage, applications, and more, and that facility provided internet access for the organization. 鈥淭he servers there are virtualized and mostly Linux,鈥� said Adesoba. 鈥淎ll our servers were mainly doing stuff around financial services. We were vending airtime, doing bank transfers, utility payments as well.鈥�
Cellulant needed a better cloud-based solution to manage users, endpoints, and data, which is what led them to 探花大神. They initially used Active Directory which simply wasn鈥檛 cutting it anymore 鈥� they needed more capabilities and flexibility within their chosen directory platform.
Challenge: Breaking Past the Limits of AD
The primary challenges that Cellulant faced were:
- Replacing AD with a much more convenient directory solution
- Managing remote users and endpoints
- Onboarding and offboarding
With traditional Active Directory in place initially, Cellulant was having trouble managing all of its endpoints and remote users. They had a cross-OS IT environment and servers housed in a colocation facility, so their processes were not nearly as effective or efficient as they were after implementing 探花大神.
In terms of 探花大神 making life more convenient at Cellulant, Adesoba said, 鈥淐onvenience for myself was a top priority then, because that goes a long way for me to benchmark what needs to be done.鈥� Active Directory was an inconvenient solution for the organization as a whole, but 探花大神 now provides them with one central pane of glass to view and manage their IT environment through, which is exactly what was needed. Efficiently managing remote endpoints and users saves massive amounts of time and money if you look at it from a bottom line perspective.
Onboarding and offboarding was another pain point that needed to be addressed at Cellulant. They needed a solution that streamlined these processes, provided automation capabilities, and connected to a wide variety of other tools, either on-prem or in the cloud. These needs also brought them to 探花大神, because the modern, cloud-based platform makes onboarding and offboarding simple, efficient, and secure.
Solution: A Cloud-Based Directory Platform
When discussing management buy-in for implementing 探花大神, Adesoba told us how he convinced them that 探花大神 was a solution that they needed. 鈥淚 had to simply come up with proof. This is in the cloud, [and] it鈥檚 easy to roll out. I showed samples of one or two rollouts, which means I just grabbed the 探花大神 setup, put it on a machine, installed it there, and boom, it came up on the console, and I showed them. Then I applied policies to it, then attached a user to it and removed the user, and did all of those processes [through a few] clicks. And from there they were sold.鈥�
After getting management buy-in, Adesoba said, 鈥淚 did the initial rollout for staff, at that time we were about 50 users in Nigeria. It was pretty much doing everything I wanted 鈥� password management, identity and access management, enforcement, and it helped me with PCI DSS compliance and ISO 27001.鈥�
As a 探花大神 user, we asked Adesoba what he would tell people that are on the fence about implementing 探花大神. His response was, 鈥淐onvenience is one [thing]. People have the opportunity to tune 探花大神 to whatever they want. 探花大神 will do what all of the other competitors will do, and more. As much as they can imagine, they can do it on 探花大神. They can extend it, which means they can connect it with many other applications that they have, maybe internal or not.鈥�
Onboarding and Offboarding Seamlessly
Regarding user lifecycle management, Adesoba mentioned, 鈥淲e had G Suite for email management, and I tied G Suite into 探花大神. So, onboarding is mostly seamless. So once staff come on board… it’s just a breeze. I provision their email, it connects to their computers, it connects to their 探花大神 access and all of their privileges, everything goes straight like that, then with multi-factor authentication on top of that.鈥�
探花大神 simplifies onboarding and offboarding by allowing Cellulant to tie everything back to 探花大神 identities, thus automating privileges, access levels, and account creation through federation. When asked about offboarding, Adesoba stated that it works as smoothly as onboarding 鈥� he said, 鈥淚 get a notification from HR that staff X is leaving, then I go through that same offboarding process.鈥�
Compliance Improvements
Prior to implementing 探花大神, Adesoba mentioned a focus on PCI DSS and ISO 27001 compliance that needed to be improved. 鈥淸探花大神] doubles as an asset management solution. [In 探花大神] I can see all of my assets. [With] standards like PCI DSS or ISO 27001, asset management [plays] an important part. So, with 探花大神 we were covered with that,鈥� Adesoba said.聽
He also said that, 鈥淚n Nigeria, most auditors don’t know 探花大神.鈥� So when they come in for the audit, they often expect to see Active Directory; however,鈥� by the time we showed them the console and they saw assets and everything, they too were sold on [探花大神]. They didn’t know that something like that exists. So, [探花大神] really helped with compliance.鈥�
Using 探花大神鈥檚 powerful platform to achieve and prove compliance is a huge asset to any organization. Failing to meet compliance standards can have lasting impacts on an organization鈥檚 reputation and bottom line, and Cellulant recognized that. By implementing 探花大神 and using it to prove compliance, they are on the right track in the realms of security and compliance.
The Result
After implementing the 探花大神 Directory Platform, Cellulant found that it鈥檚 more cost-effective and just a better overall solution compared to alternatives. Quoting Adesoba, 鈥淚n my opinion, [in terms of cost], I think 探花大神 is more affordable than the alternatives. Our colleagues in other markets such as Kenya initially were using Okta and we advised that 探花大神 is a better alternative. So, after a while they moved from Okta to 探花大神 as well.鈥�
According to Adesoba, after adopting and rolling out 探花大神, Cellulant received the support they needed from 探花大神 to remain secure and productive. 鈥淚 get good response time, and they’re always there to support,鈥� he said in reference to the support team. Being able to ask questions or report problems and get a quick response is an integral part of 探花大神鈥檚 platform, and it exists to ensure that no issue goes unaddressed.
I’m a big 探花大神 fan to be honest.
Michael Adesoba, Former Cybersecurity Engineer, Cellulant
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探花大神 changes the way IT administrators manage their organizations by providing a comprehensive and flexible cloud directory platform. From one pane of glass, manage user identities and resource access, secure Mac, Windows, and Linux devices, and get a full view of your environment.
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