Item: ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
Rating: 7
Author: Don Szurek

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Monitoring server logs is hard. With all the background noise in the logs, it's hard to spot problems. ManageEngine ADAudit Plus does a great job of sifting through the fluff and getting to the meat. I know who logged on, whether it's their normal behavior, bad passwords, etc. I can also check if new accounts are being created by malware or hackers.

Pros and Cons

Monitors bad passwords - user errors or hacking
Monitors if acccounts are being accessed outside normal hours
Automated repors so that I don't have to go look at the dashboard every day.

There is not a clear definition between what you have purchased and what reports require additional purchase.
It's not easy to only get email if an exception occurs.

Return on Investment

Better able to complete the "security" questions on customer requests.

Ransomware reports all talk about "latency time" - the time between when a network is compromised and when it is discovered. This tool should help us better reduce that time.

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus provides an in depth look at changes made across every aspect of your Active Directory. How has being able to track changes in your Active Directory impacted your organization?

We don't have many chances, so just being able to see any changes quickly is a great value add.

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus User Behavior Analytics

By monitoring user behavior, I was able to see when people were using the systems which better allowed me to schedule maintenance. Also, it "reminded" me of some of the automated tasks that had been put in place because they show up in the utilization logs.

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus Security Objectives

This allows us to state that we have automated security monitoriing.

We have had no threats, so we've not seen that portion yet. However, for auditing, it saves me the trouble of looking at multiple logs every day.

Alternatives Considered

ManageEngine Desktop Central

I like that Desktop central has a community edition that allows smaller organizations to start with the product and then as they grow, purchase the product. Unfortunately, the community edition of this product is not very useful.

Support Rating

Support works with you to help set it up and to resolve any problems. I like that they do respond to email, chat, and phone calls, rather than ignoring some of the channels as some companies do.

Key Insights

Do you think ManageEngine ADAudit Plus delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with ManageEngine ADAudit Plus's feature set?

Yes

Did ManageEngine ADAudit Plus live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of ManageEngine ADAudit Plus go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy ManageEngine ADAudit Plus again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

The "free" version really isn't very useful so even small shops have to purchase the software, unlike some of their other products. With a 30-day free trial, it's hard to separate what you get with which license. However, for a smaller shop, this is a way to start monitoring logs for a reasonable price. I'm not sure if large shops would get caught up with too much complexity.

Useful for even small organizations.

Overall Satisfaction with ManageEngine ADAudit Plus