Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM)

Enterprise solution which streamlines management

According to Microsoft, organizations around the world rely on BitLocker Drive Encryption and BitLocker To Go to protect data on Windows 7 PCs and portable storage devices. To make large-scale BitLocker implementations easier to manage, enterprises turn to Microsoft® BitLocker® Administration and Monitoring (MBAM).

Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring, enhances BitLocker by simplifying deployment and key recovery, centralizing provisioning, monitoring and reporting of encryption status for fixed and removable drives, and minimizing support costs.

Simplify BitLocker provisioning and deployment

Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring can provision BitLocker as part of your Windows 7 upgrade or configure BitLocker deployment to take place after the operating system is installed. Using the additional Group Policy controls in MBAM, it is easier for IT to provision BitLocker specific to their business needs. The controls are checked regularly at intervals set by an IT administrator and any changes are immediately infused.

Additionally, the hardware-blocking feature can be used to identify BitLocker-capable computers and exclude specific hardware that you don’t want encrypted.

Improve compliance

With out-of-box reports that detail compliance with corporate-defined BitLocker policies can get a better view of your compliance status for the organization or individual devices, and easily determine if lost or stolen devices were encrypted. IT staff can also create custom compliance reports using built-in SQL Server Reporting Services tools to show them just the information that they need to see.

MBAM also provides the ability to store BitLocker recovery keys in an encrypted database with granular access controls and creates an audit trail of who has accessed recovery key information, keeping this information protected and only accessible to the right people in the organization.

Reduce support costs
By reducing the burden on IT staff and making it easier for them to support end users, MBAM helps to reduce the support costs and gets the end users up and running quickly if a problem arises.

With a secure, web-based key recovery portal, it is easy for authorized help-desk staff to support end users if they need to recover their BitLocker enabled machine. By automating pre-BitLocker setup steps and making it easy for end users to perform basic tasks such as starting the encryption process and managing their BitLocker PIN—without providing users with administrator rights.

MBAM will be available in Q3 2011 and a beta version of Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring is now available for download here (Windows Live ID required).