Riordan Manufacturing Active Directory Proposal
Shaun Dehler
POS/427
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Week 2 IA
Instructor: Ken Pinarie
Introduction
The following is a proposal for the implementation of Active Directory within the Riordan
Manufacturing organization. The primary reference for this proposal is the Microsoft guide
“Best Practice Active Directory Design for Managing Windows Networks.” The contents
below will provide a working definition of Microsoft Active Directory, the benefits it will
provide to Riordan, a base diagram of Active Directory for Riordan, and a detail analysis
of the Active Directory diagram.
Active Directory
Active Directory (AD) is different from specialized and often disconnected directories. AD
is designed to play many different roles within an organization. The roles range from
managing Windows networks to managing directory enabled applications. (1) The bottom
line is that Active Directory empowers organizations to centralize their directory
management in a more streamlined, powerful and flexible manner.
Active Directory Benefits
Active Directory brings a wide range of benefits to an organization. The primary benefits
stem from the use of AD as a network operating system (NOS). This proposal focuses on
utilizing AD as a NOS. The following are highlights of some of the advantages of AD:
Centralized management of very large Windows networks (Active Directory is designed to
support millions of objects).
The ability to eliminate resource domains, including the hardware and administration they
entail.
Policy-based desktop lockdown and software distribution.
The ability to delegate administrative control over resources where appropriate.
Simplified location and use of shared resources.
(1)
An obvious theme throughout the above benefits is the centralization and simplification of
network resource management. This powerful approach to using AD as Riordans NOS will
