ScriptLogic announced Security Explorer 7.0, which expands admins' abilities to manage security and permissions from Windows Servers to SQL Server and Exchange, and offers the flexibility of modular licensing. ScriptLogic's John Rolls, vice president of product management, notes that for many organizations, being able to buy products on a modular basis is an attractive choice: An organization can buy one or a combination of Security Explorer modules depending upon which servers it needs to manage permissions on. Security Explorer for File Server runs $499 per server; Security Explorer for SQL Server runs $999 per SQL Server, with an unlimited number of instances; and Security Explorer for Exchange runs $5 per mailbox; $35 per mailbox if purchased as part of the Exchange Management Solutions suite offered by ScriptLogic and Quest.

Security Explorer for SQL Server runs on a DBA's workstation and offers "one big treeview," Rolls says. Ease of use is important, as "our user base is typically generalist administrators," he says. It offers the ability to back up and restore security settings on databases and other servers, manage underlying permissions on database table functions and stored procedures, and replicate and transfer permissions, and it shows whether permissions come from the Active Directory (AD) domain or from SQL Server, and offers reporting capabilities. It also can search for SQL Server logins with blank or weak passwords. Current support is for SQL Server 2005, and future support is planned for SQL Server 2008.

Security Explorer for Exchange joins a suite of advanced permissions management products, ScriptLogic Exchange Management Solutions, which includes ScriptLogic Archive Manager and Quest MessageStats. Archive Manager strips attachments out of email for easier archiving; Quest MessageStats adds advanced discovery of Exchange inventory such as email sending, mailbox, storage stats, as well as offering planning and reporting capabilities. Like Security Explorer for Exchange, the other two members of the trio are also available as standalones. To learn more, see http://scriptlogic.com.