Central to the role based enforcement capabilities of each Blue Reef product is the Sonar Operating System (OS). The OS provides high-level event management functionality and allows policies to be intelligently combined with identity infrastructure and disseminated to the underlying enforcement technologies in context to the role and function required.
Specifically, the OS combines policy management, event management, replication and synchronization functions to allow uniform application and integration of policy control over each integrated enforcement technology. Leveraging the capabilities of an organizations enterprise identity infrastructure, Sonar systematically synchronizes with an existing LDAP directory service(s) (such as Microsoft Active Directory, Novell eDirectory and Apple LDAP) from which it gathers the user and group identity information needed for it to generate granular role-based networking policies. These policies determine who gets access to what network resources, from where and when. Once
determined, personalized network enforcement policies based on the identity: user, groups or machines, are dynamically enforced in real-time at the network level. The system is centrally managed, provides hierarchical delegated authority control and
full logging and reporting capabilities.
OS Features
Foundation OS Virtualisation Services
Hardened secure embedded operating environment supporting task-specific networking processing engines
Flexible device integration with support for routed/NAT, switched VLAN and transparent mode environments
Integrated messaging layer for coordinating policy between enforcement technologies and management systems
Wire-speed low-latency design
Hierarchical Policy Management and Compliance Services
Extensible hierarchical role based policy management layer with flexible Java based console
Integrate policy, authentication and authorization with enterprise LDAP based directory infrastructure
Delegated administrative domains with highly granular authorization and control semantics.
Distributed Policy and Authorisation Engine
Co-ordinate and distribute policy as integrated role based objects over network enforcement (layer 2 7)
Manages all policy associations, authentication, authorization and audit capability
Replicate policy changes over a large number of distributed Sonar Units
Flexible authentication architecture with Single Sign On capabilities and support for most operating systems and devices
Extensible tracking, logging and audit capabilities
