Elevating IT Security and Compliance: MerchSource LLC’s Transformation with ADAudit Plus

Business challenges

• Limited functionality of native AD tools: MerchSource LLC lacked robust auditing and historical capabilities within their Active Directory (AD) environment. The standard Windows AD logs generated by native tools did not provide comprehensive insights or trends without manual creation, leaving the company with limited visibility into their AD activities.
• Operational burden: The lack of an integrated auditing solution meant that IT staff had to manually compile and analyze logs, which was time-consuming and prone to errors. MerchSource required a more efficient system to streamline their auditing processes and improve overall operational efficiency.

The Problem

Before implementing ADAudit Plus, MerchSource LLC faced significant IT challenges in auditing and monitoring their Active Directory (AD). The company relied solely on the standard Windows AD logs, which offered limited functionality. "We had no auditing or historical capabilities with AD outside of the standard Windows AD logs, providing no insights or trends without manual creation," stated Adam Ruiz, Director of Infrastructure at MerchSource LLC. This deficiency made it difficult to track changes, detect anomalies, and prepare for audits.

The lack of detailed auditing capabilities hindered MerchSource's ability to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements such as SOX. Without automated and comprehensive reporting, the IT team struggled to provide accurate and verifiable answers during audits. This posed a significant risk to the company’s compliance status and overall data security. The IT team at MerchSource opted for ADAudit Plus, ManageEngine's user behavior analytics (UBA) solution.

The Solution

Adam Ruiz explained that his longstanding trust on ManageEngine was one of the key factors to deploy ADAudit Plus into the organization's environment, "I have been an ADAudit Plus user for literally decades and I brought that into my most recent job here for the same benefits I have always enjoyed." The solution provided robust and automated reporting capabilities, enabling the company to be audit-ready and ensuring the veracity of responses during compliance checks.

ADAudit Plus' user monitoring capabilities signaled a major change for MerchSource' security operations. By allowing the company to track user interactions, monitor login activities, and establish behavior baselines across multiple domains and environments, ADAudit Plus ensured that critical IoC's never went under the IT team's radar. "Out of the box reporting allows me to see what my administrators are doing and I have instant awareness of any changes made," Ruiz explained.

ADAudit Plus also streamlined MerchSource’s auditing processes, reducing the time and effort required to compile and analyze logs manually. With ADAudit Plus' audit trail documentation helping his IT team achieve SOX compliance, Ruiz opines that ADAudit Plus is a must-have for organizations that need to monitor multiple administrators and establish "truth of record when it comes to audits for any sort of accreditation."

About ADAudit Plus

ADAudit Plus is a real-time Active Directory change auditing solution that features file and folder monitoring, plus access and permission change capabilities. With more than 200 event-specific reports and real-time email alerts, it provides in-depth knowledge about changes made to both the content and configurations of Active Directory, Azure AD, and Windows servers. Additionally, ADAudit Plus provides thorough insights on workstation and file server access (including NetApp and EMC). For more information about ADAudit Plus, visit https://www.manageengine.com/products/active-directory-audit/.