Likewise has announced a program that enables educational institutions of all sizes to take advantage of reduced pricing and cross-platform expertise to better track, authenticate and secure Linux, Unix and Mac systems.

The competitive pricing of Likewise Enterprise for Education, along with volume discounts, helps universities and school districts achieve significant cost savings. Also, Likewise Open, an open source and free product, can integrate small groups of computers using Microsoft Active Directory. No additional hardware is required to set up Likewise, so schools don't need to worry about additional budget for servers.

Johns Hopkins University, a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, was among the first to take advantage of the new program. Johns Hopkins chose site license pricing, which allows it to use Likewise Enterprise across the entire university.

"The significant use of Mac and Linux desktops in schools has added to an already complex environment managed by IT staffs that are being asked to do more with significantly less," said Arne Gallagher, director of worldwide education sales at Likewise. "Likewise understands the complexities of cross-platform management, cost constraints and regulatory compliance issues faced by schools. The Likewise Enterprise for Education program should be helpful to many educational institutions."

Special subscription-based pricing in Likewise Enterprise for Education starts at $19 per workstation per year.  Program details are available at www.likewise.com/education.

"Likewise Enterprise will allow us to manage our vast campus network centrally with Active Directory," said Kyle Reynolds, IT manager at the Institute for Computational Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. "The savings we will achieve by reducing operating costs and eliminating additional hardware required by other solutions adds to the value we're getting from Likewise. After examining the alternatives available, Likewise Enterprise for Education was the clear choice."

About Likewise Offerings

Likewise Open joins desktops and servers running Linux, Unix and Mac OS X to an organization's existing Active Directory. Likewise Open is the most widely-used Active Directory authentication engine for Linux, Unix and Mac OS X systems, with over 90,000 organizations worldwide using it.  Likewise Open is completely free, with both free and paid support options available.

Likewise Enterprise builds on the authentication engine of Likewise Open, making it easy for IT managers to authenticate users, control access to applications and data, centrally manage settings with group policies, and create reports for regulatory audits.  Both one-time licensing and subscription-based licensing options are available, as well as unique support programs for educational institutions.

About Likewise

Likewise provides integration and identity management solutions to improve security and operational efficiencies and to help achieve regulatory compliance in mixed networks. Likewise Open lets organizations securely authenticate Linux, Unix and Mac users with Microsoft Active Directory. Likewise Enterprise includes all the core authentication technology that comes with Likewise Open, plus world-class migration, group policy, auditing and reporting modules. More information is available at the company's Web site, www.likewise.com.

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