4 ms·

AD is a directory of EVERYTHING. From users to groups, departments, divisions, printers, to remote access, device management, email, file shares... Many third p

AD is a directory of EVERYTHING. From users to groups, departments, divisions, printers, to remote access, device management, email, file shares... Many third party apps use it for either or both of authN and authR. You can use it to federate identities. It is vast in its scope and its reign is without equal.

chrisseaton 6y ago
These things all seem less and less important, though? Don't most modern companies have web services for their internal apps? I don't have AD - I have an SSO web login for a variety of web sites and SAS products. Who uses a printer these days? File shares? That's Dropbox or Google Drive now. Email? In your browser.
- laumars 6y ago
  I don't like Microsoft much either and even I can still see your comments aren't fair > These things all seem less and less important, though? Don't most modern companies have web services for their internal apps? Actually it's more important than ever. All these cloud services means when staff leave there's more risk of an account accidentally being left open. Federated access resolves this problem. > I don't have AD - I have an SSO web login for a variety of web sites and SAS products. That "SSO web login" might still be Active Directory (it might not, but in many organisations it is). > File shares? That's Dropbox or Google Drive now. Or Microsoft OneDrive -- which would be authenticated against AD. > Email? In your browser. I'm a big fan of local mail clients but Microsoft have supported web mail longer than most people might realise. Quite a few years long than Google Mail. Longer even than Yahoo! Mail. OWA (Outlook Web Access) was first shipped in Microsoft Exchange 5 released sometime in mid to late 90s on Windows NT4. Sure, OWA was pretty basic but did a good enough job. Microsoft also bought Hotmail back in '97 These days Microsoft have a pretty extensive suite of web-based office applications from Word and Excel through to Outlook. You might have heard of Office 365? Well that can also authenticate against Active Directory.
  - deleted 6y ago
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laumars 6y ago
It is an industry standard but you're at risk of over stating things there. There's plenty of other federated directory services available that support LDAP and SAML, eg https://ldap.com/directory-servers/ https://ldap.com/directory-servers/ What Microsoft Active Directory buys you is easy integration with other Microsoft products like Windows; which is also a de facto standard in most organisations. However go anywhere that is a UNIX, Linux or Apple shop and Active Directory quickly becomes the wrong tool.

chrisseaton 6y ago

These things all seem less and less important, though? Don't most modern companies have web services for their internal apps? I don't have AD - I have an SSO web login for a variety of web sites and SAS products. Who uses a printer these days? File shares? That's Dropbox or Google Drive now. Email? In your browser.

laumars 6y ago
I don't like Microsoft much either and even I can still see your comments aren't fair > These things all seem less and less important, though? Don't most modern companies have web services for their internal apps? Actually it's more important than ever. All these cloud services means when staff leave there's more risk of an account accidentally being left open. Federated access resolves this problem. > I don't have AD - I have an SSO web login for a variety of web sites and SAS products. That "SSO web login" might still be Active Directory (it might not, but in many organisations it is). > File shares? That's Dropbox or Google Drive now. Or Microsoft OneDrive -- which would be authenticated against AD. > Email? In your browser. I'm a big fan of local mail clients but Microsoft have supported web mail longer than most people might realise. Quite a few years long than Google Mail. Longer even than Yahoo! Mail. OWA (Outlook Web Access) was first shipped in Microsoft Exchange 5 released sometime in mid to late 90s on Windows NT4. Sure, OWA was pretty basic but did a good enough job. Microsoft also bought Hotmail back in '97 These days Microsoft have a pretty extensive suite of web-based office applications from Word and Excel through to Outlook. You might have heard of Office 365? Well that can also authenticate against Active Directory.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

laumars 6y ago

It is an industry standard but you're at risk of over stating things there. There's plenty of other federated directory services available that support LDAP and SAML, eg https://ldap.com/directory-servers/ https://ldap.com/directory-servers/ What Microsoft Active Directory buys you is easy integration with other Microsoft products like Windows; which is also a de facto standard in most organisations. However go anywhere that is a UNIX, Linux or Apple shop and Active Directory quickly becomes the wrong tool.