News - JSS

SSO Plugin for bespoke applications

dkellett(at)javasystemsolutions(dot)com (Danny Kellett) — Wed, 29 May 2013 04:06:00 GMT

SSO Plugin has been deployed by a London based investment bank within an internal Java trading application, providing comprehensive Integrated Windows Authentication support for the bank's employees.

The ease of deployment against a Java web based application that was never built with SSO Plugin in mind, demonstrates the product is flexible and perfect for a range of applications outside of the BMC and HP markets.

JSS are happy to assist with proof of concept bespoke integrations. Contact support@javasystemsolutions.com if you wish to learn more about the product.

SSO Plugin for Jive Software

jbaker(at)javasystemsolutions(dot)com (John B) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:33:00 GMT

We are pleased to announce the release of SSO Plugin for Jive Software, a leading social business platform. Jive powers well known websites such as BMC Communities and is available for both on premises and hosted solutions.

SSO Plugin provides the first quality SSO solution for Jive Software, including popular features such as a mature cross-platform Integrated Windows Authentication module, native CA SiteMinder and RSA Access Manager support and SAML integration to popular Identity Providers such as Microsoft ADFS2, Ping Federate, etc.

The Jive Software integration is available in the SSO Plugin 3.6.7 release.

SSO Plugin newsletter

dkellett(at)javasystemsolutions(dot)com (Danny Kellett) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 19:16:00 GMT

Welcome to a newsletter from Java System Solutions. In this newsletter you will find recent SSO Plugin product developments, revised pricing and feedback from our customers.

Product developments

We're always working to improve SSO Plugin and here is some recent product news.

SSO Plugin for CA Clarity PPM

We're pleased to announce that organisations using CA Clarity PPM can now enjoy SSO Plugin, providing seamless access to, in many cases, everyone in the organisation who has to login daily to track their time on project tasks.

This integration is part of the SSO Plugin Authentication Service and requires an extra license for existing users. Please contact JSS for more details.

BMC AR System 'authenticate unregistered users' and SSO

Authenticate Unregistered Users is a long standing feature of the BMC AR System. This feature is used to authenticate users that do not exist in the User form while maintaining a list of users outside the AR System, such as Active Directory.

While SSO Plugin has many features to allow customers to decide how to create accounts within the User form when one doesn't exist, there are some customers who still need to have an option for those whom remain without a User account.

SSO Plugin 3.6.7 introduces a feature to allow users who do not have an account in the User form to be authenticated via SSO and then gain access to the application. As per BMC design, these users will not be assigned a license and will not be assigned to any groups.

We'd like to think Misi Mladoniczky, ARSlist's "most valued poster" (2011), for this great feature suggestion. Check out Misi's range of products.

SAML IDP initiated login

The SSO Plugin SAML support continues to mature and now offers Identity Provider initiated logins and SAML decryption.

SSO Plugin end of life dates

The SSO Plugin product has evolved many times since the initial release in 2006. We have therefore decided to phase out support for versions prior to 3.1 on 31st December 2013, and versions prior to 3.5 on 31st December 2014.

We've made this decision because the newer versions of the product are of a higher quality, with improved features and reduced administration, and hence we'd like to encourage customers to upgrade. Customers subscribing to the JSS support service can receive assisted upgrades as part of the service.

Of course, we'll never decline a support issue due to a version being out of support, but we'll encourage you to upgrade by explaining how the newer releases could have avoided the support issue.

If you have any concerns about this statement, please contact us.

Security tip for BMC AR System users

We see a lot of Mid Tier deployments and have noticed that the Mid Tier configuration password is almost never changed from the default value, arsystem. This poses a security risk, particularly when running a Mid Tier on the Internet - it doesn't take long to find a few public Mid Tiers with the default administration password.

SSO Plugin 3.6.7 displays a warning on the status page when the default password is set, so if you haven't changed your Mid Tier administration password, why not change it now?

Also, change the default AR System database password from AR#Admin# to something else.

SSO Plugin pricing

We've developed a range of pricing for small installations, typically where there are a small number of AR System fixed/floating licenses and a single production AR System server. Please contact us for more details on this new competitive pricing.

Feedback from our customers

We believe that customer feedback is a key measure of a company's ability to support customers. Here is a quote we recently received from BMC customer Yossi Segev (Comverse):

"I would like to thank the JSS team for the incredible effort they put into helping us install the JSS AR System SSO Plugin.

The support availability, providing me with a webex during your Christmas day, and quality was amazing! One of the best companies with whom I've ever had the chance to work.

Thanks from the bottom of my heart."

John Baker commented:

"I was 'on call' and had to negotiate a delay to our family Christmas dinner, and a deal was struck when I offered to do the washing up!"

For more information on our products and services, please visit the JSS website at http://www.javasystemsolutions.com.

BMC AR System 8.1

dkellett(at)javasystemsolutions(dot)com (Danny Kellett) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 09:38:00 GMT

We can confirm that SSO Plugin 3.6.6 supports BMC AR System / ITSM 8.1.

SSO Plugin for CA Clarity PPM

jbaker(at)javasystemsolutions(dot)com (John B) — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 23:48:00 GMT

The SSO Plugin product has been integrated with CA Clarity PPM and is included within the SSO Plugin Authentication Service, available for download today.

There are no complicated integration steps: simply make a couple of modifications in the Clarity administration interface; apply a patch to the Clarity application and configure SSO Plugin to integrate with the SSO service (ie Active Directory, SAML, etc).

Product end of life support dates

jbaker(at)javasystemsolutions(dot)com (John B) — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 09:30:00 GMT

Of course, we'll never decline a support issue due to a version being out of support, but we'll encourage you to upgrade by explaining how the newer releases could have avoided the support issue.

If you have any concerns about this statement, please contact us.

SSO Plugin 3.6.0 release

jbaker(at)javasystemsolutions(dot)com (John B) — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 09:32:00 GMT

The latest stable release of SSO Plugin 3.6.0, is now available on our website. It contains many new features and replaces SSO Plugin 3.5 as our recommended production release.

SSO Plugin for BMC Mid Tier

jbaker(at)javasystemsolutions(dot)com (John B) — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 18:54:00 GMT

We've updated the video walk-through for the 3.6 version of SSO Plugin.

Sadly, the Windows native NTLM functionality, ie sign in to ITSM without logging in when logged into a Windows domain, did not make it into the video. However, the video is still relevant for all installations.