SOLUTIONS

Whether you need to start from scratch or migrate from Windows NT 4.0 directory services to Windows 2000 Active Directory, Advanced CompuNet consultancy team will help you design and implement your new Windows 2000 Active Directory service in the most effective and logical way.
What exactly is Active Directory? How does it work and what benefits does it supply?

The Active Directory service is a central component of the Windows 2000 operating system platform. A directory service provides a place to store information about network-based entities, such as applications, files, printers, and people. It provides a consistent way to name, describe, locate, access, manage, and secure information about these individual resources.

Active Directory provides a single point of management for Windows-based user accounts, clients, servers, and applications. It also helps organizations integrate systems not using Windows with Windows-based applications, and Windows-compatible devices, thus consolidating directories and easing management of the entire network operating system. Companies can also use Active Directory to extend systems securely to the Internet. Active Directory thus increases the value of an organization's existing network investments and lowers the overall costs of computing by making the Windows network operating system more manageable, secure, and interoperable.

A directory service provides a place to store information about network-based entities, such as applications, files, printers, and people. It provides a consistent way to name, describe, locate, access, manage, and secure information about these individual resources. Further, a directory service acts as the main switchboard of the network operating system. It is the central authority that manages the relationships between these distributed resources, enabling them to work together.

Totally integrated with Windows 2000 Server, Active Directory gives network administrators the following benefits:

Simplifies Management - Active Directory allows companies to significantly lower management costs by providing a single place to manage users, groups and network resources, as well as distribute software and manage desktop configurations. For example, Active Directory uses one place for managing both Windows 2000 users and Microsoft Exchange mailbox information.

Strengthens Security - Strong and consistent security services are essential to corporate networks. Active Directory centralizes management and enforces role-based security consistent with an organization's business processes. It improves password security and management by providing single sign-on to network resources with integrated, high-powered security services that are transparent to end users. It tightly controls security by setting access control privileges on directory objects and the individual data elements that make them up. This is particularly important for organizations that do business over the Internet.

Extends Interoperability - Many corporate networks have an equally diverse collection of disparate directories as part of e-mail servers, applications, network devices, firewalls, e-commerce applications, and more. Active Directory provides a set of standard interfaces for application integration and open synchronization mechanisms to ensure that Windows can interoperate with a wide variety of applications and devices.