Enforcing HTTPS for Secure SAP BusinessObjects BI4

Many organizations just deploy SAP BusinessObjects without a thought for securing HTTP traffic or intra-server communication. But what you probably didn’t realize is basic packet sniffing tools can allow nefarious individuals within your own walls to watch those little packets of bytes fly by with Windows AD, LDAP, or SAP Authentication tokens included within them. So what is the probability that other, mission critical applications within your organization use those same authentication tokens? High. Very high. So what is an administrator to do? Let’s dissect.

BI4 Launch Pad Default Preferences

BI4 has given administrators something they have been asking for for years: the ability to set the Default User Preferences.

Unfortunately its not the complete list of all the user preferences, but it is a good start including some of the major pain points administrators have to deal with:

  • Start page customizations
  • Columns displayed in Documents tab
  • Document viewing location
  • Maximum Number of rows to display (Yeah)

First Rumblings of BI4

A little birdy told me that XI 4 is only being released on 64 bit. Can anybody back that up? If you have your hands on the beta now and it didn’t occur to you, VMware Fusion on a “recent” Mac can create 64 bit VMs. All you need then is the 64 bit edition of Windows or a flavor of Linux. I think I’d like to try both. I’m just sayin… yay for Mac.