The Symark PowerKeeper is a hardened appliance with a sealed operating system that provides a secure privileged account access management process to replace the human approach to granting privileged access. PowerKeeper automatically audits and manages access to "systems", and can dynamically rotate the password on all types of privileged accounts such as pre-defined/shared administrative accounts, application accounts and local administrative accounts.
We had mixed feelings about this product in terms of ease of use. While the web-based GUI for the appliance was easy and intuitive to use and manage, the installation, which seemed straight forward on paper, was not as cut and dry in practice.
The appliance comes loaded with administrative users built in and during set up we had to use these accounts to begin the configuration process. We had a few problems keeping which account to use for which task straight. We would have liked to see a different approach for initial access such as a setup wizard.
The product is solid in the way of performance. The PowerKeeper appliance uses FIPS-140 Level two encryption technology for all data and communications, access control mechanisms, and securely stores credentials and passwords, and creates audit trails. PowerKeeper randomly generates passwords based on user configurable password construction rules and eliminates hard coded passwords in applications using certificates and sets of approved program factors to uniquely identify applications.
Documentation includes an installation guide, user guide and an interface user guide all in PDF format. These guides are all quite detailed and easy to follow including many screenshots and step-by-step examples.
As with PowerBroker Symark provides 24/7, 365 days a year phone and email support at a cost of 20 per cent of the licence fee for the PowerKeeper.
A knowledgebase, FAQ section and documentation are all available on the website. This product is solid value for money.
The PowerKeeper offers a high end of granularity and system support paired with a comprehensive feature set.