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Odd that they're dumping Exchange for SSO-related reasons, as "... Microsoft is now getting into the game. It recently announced that its customers, using certa

Odd that they're dumping Exchange for SSO-related reasons, as "... Microsoft is now getting into the game. It recently announced that its customers, using certain Microsoft products and services, will be able to manage passwords for third party cloud apps through Active Directory." From the 2nd page.

braum 13y ago
I don't think it's just about SSO. Exchange isn't cheap to license or keep operational. If you switch to exchange in cloud it doesn't reduce the costs that much. Hopefully soon Microsoft will realize the value some of their products (SQL Server and Exchange) isn't nearly what it used to be and that they need to adjust prices and licensing requirements.
justizin 13y ago
Disclaimer: I work for OneLogin, but do not speak for OneLogin. Microsoft likes to promise to provide things in the future that their current customers are paying someone else for. Exchange is one of those things like Oracle that people install because they think if you're big, you need it, though in fact it's a bit like driving an SUV. Netflix isn't a company that really follows anyone else's lead and it surprises me that they used [edited use -> used] Exchange, but I bet it harkens back to the days when they were just a DVD-by-mail service. This is probably a sign that Netflix increasingly doesn't want to deal with IT. It's widely known that they don't care about the costs of EC2 because they spend so disproportionately to license video content there's no way to make it an x-factor.
EvanAnderson 13y ago
Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) can be used as a SAML 2.0 Identity Provider (iDP). This goes back to the introduction of ADFS in Windows Server 2003 R2.
- justizin 13y ago
  In this case, they were probably using AD just because of Exchange, so if you want to ditch Exchange for Gmail, it's an odd choice to use AD as your identity provider, esp if you're a company known for wanting as little on-premise IT as possible.
  - EvanAnderson 13y ago
    I would guess that they're using Active Directory because they have Windows PCs to manage. AD, arguably, provides a _lot_ of value if you have any quantity of Windows-based PCs that you want to manage centrally. I haven't seen any compelling third-party hosted offering to replace the SSO and Group Policy functionality in Windows client OS's that AD enables. Maybe when Samba4 reaches maturity that will change.

braum 13y ago

I don't think it's just about SSO. Exchange isn't cheap to license or keep operational. If you switch to exchange in cloud it doesn't reduce the costs that much. Hopefully soon Microsoft will realize the value some of their products (SQL Server and Exchange) isn't nearly what it used to be and that they need to adjust prices and licensing requirements.

justizin 13y ago

Disclaimer: I work for OneLogin, but do not speak for OneLogin. Microsoft likes to promise to provide things in the future that their current customers are paying someone else for. Exchange is one of those things like Oracle that people install because they think if you're big, you need it, though in fact it's a bit like driving an SUV. Netflix isn't a company that really follows anyone else's lead and it surprises me that they used [edited use -> used] Exchange, but I bet it harkens back to the days when they were just a DVD-by-mail service. This is probably a sign that Netflix increasingly doesn't want to deal with IT. It's widely known that they don't care about the costs of EC2 because they spend so disproportionately to license video content there's no way to make it an x-factor.

EvanAnderson 13y ago

Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) can be used as a SAML 2.0 Identity Provider (iDP). This goes back to the introduction of ADFS in Windows Server 2003 R2.

justizin 13y ago
In this case, they were probably using AD just because of Exchange, so if you want to ditch Exchange for Gmail, it's an odd choice to use AD as your identity provider, esp if you're a company known for wanting as little on-premise IT as possible.
- EvanAnderson 13y ago
  I would guess that they're using Active Directory because they have Windows PCs to manage. AD, arguably, provides a _lot_ of value if you have any quantity of Windows-based PCs that you want to manage centrally. I haven't seen any compelling third-party hosted offering to replace the SSO and Group Policy functionality in Windows client OS's that AD enables. Maybe when Samba4 reaches maturity that will change.