{"id":44461,"date":"2021-03-23T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jumpcloud.com\/?p=44461"},"modified":"2024-08-15T11:34:08","modified_gmt":"2024-08-15T15:34:08","slug":"user-provisioning-ad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jumpcloud.com\/blog\/user-provisioning-ad","title":{"rendered":"User Provisioning & Active Directory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Provisioning users to a variety of IT resources – think Mac\/Linux\/Windows machines, web applications, cloud infrastructure, VPNs, and more – is part of any admin\u2019s job, but establishing a single identity for each resource with Active Directory\u00ae<\/sup> (AD or MAD) presents a challenge. AD is not natively designed to federate identities to resources that have emerged – e.g. cloud infrastructure \/ web applications – since it was invented in 1999. Further, with the on-going global pandemic and the shift to remote work, provisioning user access to IT resources has become even more challenging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideally, using one authoritative identity per user \u2014 which they use to access their permitted systems, apps, networks, and files \u2014 prevents identity sprawl<\/a> and enables admins to suspend access across their organization’s infrastructure immediately. Further, in the modern era of security, this approach can enable IT admins to leverage Zero Trust principles<\/a> to further lock down their infrastructure. Zero Trust and it\u2019s instantiation through Conditional Access policies are an important tool whether a user\u2019s credentials are compromised, the user leaves the organization or they are just accessing IT resources remotely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, despite the challenges of connecting users to modern IT resources, many admins see no alternative to AD because of its dominance in the market over the last twenty years. Its strengths in Windows-based user management and configuration are well known, but in an era where there are more non-Windows resources and work-from-home (WFH) is prevalent, is the on-prem domain model the correct one? In this post, we\u2019ll examine modern user provisioning requirements and how to best meet them while either maintaining AD and reducing identity sprawl or by considering the alternative: the Domainless Enterprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modern User Provisioning Requirements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s worth taking stock of the needs in your IT environment by asking yourself some important fact-finding questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n