What’s included in the 9s Upgrade?
In January of this year at the 2015 MicroStrategy World conference in Las Vegas, MicroStrategy announced that their latest Analytics platform, MicroStrategy 9s, was now Generally Available. With this release MicroStrategy has released some significantly improved security enhancements by incorporating their Usher application into the platform’s functionality.
What is Usher? How can it help your BI?
A more secure BI Platform sounds great, but what is Usher? How does it make my data more secure? According to MicroStrategy, “Usher is a mobile identity platform designed to provide security for every business process and system access across an enterprise.” In basic layman’s terms, Usher is a new way to authenticate users for access to a building/office space and login’s to a website, portal, application, workstation, etc. It replaces a username/password, identification badge (I will miss the lanyards), and physical keys.
As great as this all sounds already, the best part is the ease of implementation and use. Usher doesn’t require heavy servers, extensive configurations, nor does it require extensive end-user training. Usher is meant to be intuitive and simple to implement. Effectively, you upload your existing MicroStrategy users to your Usher Network and facilitate the creation of a smart phone based badge. You can also add users directly to your Usher Network without the need for them to be an existing MicroStrategy user.
This new Usher badge operates as a substitute for the usernames and passwords by allowing users to authenticate themselves using the inherent biometric and other various levels of security, including multi-factor authentication (Biometric, Passcodes, & Certificates), Device Security, and Application Security.
What other benefits are in MicroStrategy 9s?
In addition to all the security improvements, MicroStrategy has smartly devised an easy 8-Step in-place upgrade process. That means that you don’t need to spec, procure, setup/configure, and test new hardware. You just download and run the MicroStrategy 9s upgrade process.
MicroStrategy’s 8-Step Upgrade Process
- Download MicroStrategy 9s
- Upgrade your Web, Mobile, and Intelligence Servers
- Reboot your Servers
- Export users from Projects
- Create Usher Configuration
- Import users into Usher
- Distribute Usher badges to users
- Input Usher Config ID into MicroStrategy Web & Mobile projects
If you’re still on the fence about whether or not to upgrade, then keep in mind that MicroStrategy has included this upgrade as part of your existing Maintenance Agreement. If you’re an existing MicroStrategy customer, then you can upgrade your existing platform without any software costs.
Conclusion
MicroStrategy has clearly set a priority on security. The incorporation of the Usher functionality also serves to provide the most highly secure BI Analytics Platform on the marketplace allowing customers to secure sensitive data and mitigate data breaches that have become too common. It also increases the exposure, knowledge, and market penetration of Usher. Both of these improvements are quite beneficial to the marketplace and MicroStrategy’s current customer base, so when you consider the ease of upgrade there is no downside to upgrading your existing platform today.
What next?
Let Axian come to the rescue and help define your BI strategy, develop a roadmap, work with your business community to identify the next project, and provide clarity and direction to a daunting task. For more details about Axian, Inc. and the Business Intelligence practice, click here to view our portfolio or email us directly to setup a meeting.
