clients / case studies / businesses
Honda
Goal
Improve the IT accounts-management process for one the world's largest automobile manufacturers
Solution
A complete IT account administration solution architected and deployed by Ephibian
Results
Introduction
American Honda is a worldwide, household name in the field of automobile and motorcycle manufacturing.
They have a very large presence, including their American headquarters, in southern California. Honda faced a number of challenges to achieve their goal of reducing the time and complexity involved in managing various IT accounts across their southern California campus. This multi-facility campus had a widely heterogeneous computing environment, with many users needing access across multiple machines with differing operating environments.
To overcome those challenges and achieve that goal, Ephibian was called upon to architect and deploy a complete account administration solution for Honda.
What did we do?
- Automated centralized account management to the fullest extent possible
- Put customized best-of-breed security management software together with custom software configurations to provide the solution
- Created a synchronized password capability for all users
- Automated a reuseable and repeatable mechanism for importing account information
- Performed rigorous user and group account administration tests during the entire customization effort prior to deployment
How did we do it?
- Provided centralized security and access management across a heterogeneous computing environment that included AIX on RS6000s, an SP Complex, HPUX on HPs, NT servers and desktop PCs
- Based on the distributed architecture that we developed, we automated the build of the security desktop, assigned subscribers, populated users from the existing systems, and set or updated user attributes as necessary to deploy the new solution
- Distributed and configured the user and group profiles with the appropriate methods, dialogs, actions, and security policies & restrictions
- Ephibian’s custom password synchronization solution replaced the standard system commands and synchronized the new password on all RS/6000s and the SP complex when a user’s password was changed. The custom password command also incorporated Honda’s unique password aging and history security requirements.
- We provided on-site support and upgrade assistance for several years after its initial deployment.
What was the result?
The result of the project was the achievement of Honda’s goal to reduce account management time across campuses while maintaining data in a secure but accessible environment.
Ephibian also delivered full documentation of the solution and a customized systems administrator guide for American Honda’s IT staff.
We provided onsite assistance after deployment until Honda IT personnel could hire an internal administrator.