{"id":15399,"date":"2018-06-08T15:12:32","date_gmt":"2018-06-08T21:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jumpcloud.com\/?page_id=15399"},"modified":"2023-06-13T18:03:17","modified_gmt":"2023-06-13T22:03:17","slug":"cross-platform-gpo-like-capabilities","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/jumpcloud.com\/resources\/cross-platform-gpo-like-capabilities","title":{"rendered":"Cross-Platform GPO-like Capabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Group Policy Objects can do almost anything for Windows systems.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when Mac and Linux machines come into play, GPOs quickly lose their capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Group Policy Objects<\/a> (GPOs) offer some of the most powerful capabilities of the Microsoft\u00ae<\/sup> Active Directory\u00ae<\/sup> (AD) platform. The challenge has always been that GPOs only work for Windows\u00ae<\/sup> based systems, unless you want to implement workarounds and third-party tools. Furthermore, Active Directory requires a lot of on-prem infrastructure<\/a> to operate. That is why the concept of a cloud-based solution that can offer cross-platform GPO-like capabilities would be a gamechanger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, a next-generation directory service platform<\/a> has emerged that can provide group-based policy management in cross-platform system environments. This platform is called JumpCloud\u00ae<\/sup> Directory-as-a-Service\u00ae<\/sup>. However, before we discuss the benefits of JumpCloud policy management, we should outline the significance of GPOs from a holistic perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A Brief Explanation of Group Policy Objects<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The modern concept of group-based policy management can be traced back to the release of Active Directory<\/a>. AD was released in 1999. It was a time when Microsoft Windows\u00ae was effectively the only enterprise computing platform, and just about everything was on-prem. Everyone had a Windows-based system, so it made sense for IT admins to have a Windows-based system management tool<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GPOs are effectively an instantiation of this concept. For example, if an admin wants a subset of their systems to connect to a particular printer, there\u2019s a GPO for that. If they want to disable the USB ports on the same or a different subset of systems, there\u2019s a GPO for that too. In essence, GPOs enable IT admins to configure settings across groups of systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is easy to see how group-based policy management can be an advantage, especially for organizations with a large number of systems. The challenge for modern IT organizations is that GPOs cannot be applied to macOS or Linux systems<\/a> without add-on solutions. While this wasn\u2019t an issue initially, macOS and Linux have become major players in the enterprise system market. Consequently, AD has become at best a partial solution from a modern system management perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another issue is that Active Directory can end up being an expensive on-prem implementation<\/a>. That means admins will have to invest significant capital and management overhead to maintaining their domain controllers for AD, all the while knowing it can only serve a fraction of their overall IT infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, as mentioned above, a host of add-on solutions are available that can extend AD to non-Windows resources, but is that really the best approach? Sure, it can get the job done, but it adds complexity. Ideally, IT organizations would be able to leverage a single source of truth<\/a> that spans the breadth of their IT infrastructure. That\u2019s possible with JumpCloud Directory-as-a-Service.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Directory-as-a-Service & GPO-like Capabilities<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At JumpCloud, we think the concept of group-based policy management should include all major platforms (e.g. Mac, Linux, or Windows). That is one of the primary reasons why we created JumpCloud Directory-as-a-Service<\/a>, and it is why we continue to build our cross-platform GPO-like capabilities. We call them JumpCloud Policies.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Features<\/h3>\n\n\n\n