What are some advantages to using directory services?

Answer 1

Security-Having only one domain means better security through a single security policy and a single set of administrators. If you have multiple domains and forests, each has its own administrator. One weak but trusted domain exposes all the other forests and domains. With only a single domain, it's also far easier to enforce an organization-wide security policy

Single platform - a single directory service or Global Catalog (GC) means a single platform for all other directory-ware services, including monitoring and messaging.

Faster deployment-starts in an organization with just a single domain and shared account database solutions need only be deployed once, which means company-wide deployments are much faster than if the organization has multiple and separate domains.

Single management infrastructure-Having a single management infrastructure means there is just one infrastructure for all other directory services tasks, such as software deployment, inventory, and object managment sharing and delegation (such as for user accounts).

Single Group Policy container (GPC)-With a single GPC, management polices need to be defined only once, and can be used throughout the entire enterprise without the need to manually export and import Group Policy Objects (GPOs).

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Backup and recovery-Having only a single domain means better resiliency because every location has a full domain backup.

Less hardware-In an organization with multiple domains, every location needs two domain controllers (DCs). With a single domain, each location needs only a single DC because if the local DC fails, the locations can use hub DCs. Reduced hardware also means fewer licenses, less management software, and less overhead for server management. There's also no need to back up remote DCs because the remote DCs just hold the same information as the central DCs-assuming the DCs only perform directory services.

Answer 2

Security-Having only one domain means better security through a single security policy and a single set of administrators. If you have multiple domains and forests, each has its own administrator. One weak but trusted domain exposes all the other forests and domains. With only a single domain, it's also far easier to enforce an organization-wide security policy

Single platform - a single directory service or Global Catalog (GC) means a single platform for all other directory-ware services, including monitoring and messaging.

Faster deployment-starts in an organization with just a single domain and shared account database solutions need only be deployed once, which means company-wide deployments are much faster than if the organization has multiple and separate domains.

Single management infrastructure-Having a single management infrastructure means there is just one infrastructure for all other directory services tasks, such as software deployment, inventory, and object managment sharing and delegation (such as for user accounts).

Single Group Policy container (GPC)-With a single GPC, management polices need to be defined only once, and can be used throughout the entire enterprise without the need to manually export and import Group Policy Objects (GPOs).

.

Backup and recovery-Having only a single domain means better resiliency because every location has a full domain backup.

Less hardware-In an organization with multiple domains, every location needs two domain controllers (DCs). With a single domain, each location needs only a single DC because if the local DC fails, the locations can use hub DCs. Reduced hardware also means fewer licenses, less management software, and less overhead for server management. There's also no need to back up remote DCs because the remote DCs just hold the same information as the central DCs-assuming the DCs only perform directory services

advantages

more secure

delegation easy

robust

easy manageability(ou)

easy administration and control

all regions have same data

can manage millions of objects

search easy

Increases the Productivity of Users

Reduces the Burden of IT Administration

Increase Fault Tolerance to minimize Downtime

It improves Security

disadvantage

cost of infrastructure

good planning is must

Complex structure for user

Answer 3

1. Active Directory is a Flat File Database, and as such does not scale well to distributed locations. On very slow links site replication can take upwards of 4hrs, or fail to complete before next replication which will cause errors.

2. Active Directory fails full LDAP compliance, which limits what open source or 3rd party products can be deployed (as such, costs increase exponentially)

3. Active Directory is OS dependent and cannot be installed on any platform other than Windows server. (This increases licensing costs and reduces reliability).

4. Active Directory works only to manage Windows based software and services, so there is no interoperability with any other technologies. (This locks agencies with this model into purchasing only products that integrate into AD, and drives costs UP, TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) UP and ROI (Return On Investment) DOWN.

disadvantage

cost of infrastructure

good planning is must

Complex structure for user

If your AD goes down your networks down

Though it's easy to set-up, if set-up wrong it can be a very timely and costly procedure to remove and start again

You have to install DNS first, and some people (for whatever reasons) cant fully get their heads round DNS

Its very easy to hack an AD