Atlassian Crowd is a single sign-on (SSO) solution from Australian-headquartered software company Atlassian.
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JumpCloud
Score 9.0 out of 10
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JumpCloud Directory-as-a-Service® is a cloud-based platform that enables IT teams to securely manage user identities and connect them to resources they need regardless of provider, protocol, vendor, or location. Directory-as-a-Service gives organizations a single pane of glass to manage users and systems. It allows administrators to grant users secure access to resources with protocols and access controls. It also includes APIs, tools, and integrations to maximize administrative flexibility and…
For companies that are already using other Atlassian systems, then Atlassian Crowd will fit in very well. This is especially the case if the company is not yet big enough to use LDAP for user management, Atlassian Crowd can act as a temporary solution until the company outgrows it, as it is much easier and simpler than LDAP.
JumpCloud is least suited in situations where you have few devices, but lots of users. JumpCloud heavily focuses on the "One-User-One-Device" type of use, and does lack some of the features things like Active Directory is better suited for when having multiple users accessing one machine. Their Powershell APIs are fantastic and getting only more powerful. Lots of features are hidden behind these APIs, so admins not as familiar with Powershell would have more issues leveraging these tools. BYOD deployments are amazing, especially for macOS devices that are using Apple Business Manager and can leverage Zero Touch deployments. It is especially good at handling mixed systems, whereas other options, such as Jamf, are really suiting only for macOS, or Intune is more suited for Windows; JumpCloud managed to handle both systems well.
User Management - The ability to control our users and set password/polices is made easy in the JC console
Device Management - Using JC each user is assigned to their own device with only the rights to do their job - When elevated rights are required, this is done simply via the JC console for the period of time required
SSO - Using JC's SAML SSO integrations we are building out our SSO offering and this is making for a much simpler daily user experience
SSO via OpenID - Opening up their SSO from just SAML to including OpenID (OAuth) would allow us to make more use of the service and to also incorporate it into some internal testing suites
Time Limited User Elevation - The ability to time limit a users elevation of privileges would be a great addition
Extending device management to include LPA - Least Privilege Access is becoming a bigger ask from our external auditors - Being able to do this via JC would be amazing
It's simple. I like how JumpCloud keeps things simple. Similar to Apple's ecosystem, they give you what you want with some extra features and bells and whistles but it doesn't take a large instruction manual to use it. They have the support system and KB articles to back up their product and learn about a feature and how to implement it
Overall, support is good, you get quick responses from Atlassian's official support system, and documentation is decent enough for you to find what you need.
I have rarely contacted support. When I have, the responses were within expected time frames, and easy to access. Community support is incredible, both from the JumpCloud representatives, and the user base community at large. The support pages on the website also are typically very well written and strike a nice balance between having the technical information needed, and also being easy to understand for the small business types that might not have as much of a technical background as an IT Admin.
These products allow you to install them on your own infrastructure, so you can manage all aspects of them which can prevent you from getting throttled from API calls. When you hit a certain threshold of scale you may need to switch off of Atlassian Cloud to your own hardware. When you are a small startup, however, this product is probably a good starting point.
Some features would make more sense for us to be bundled by machine, instead of the user. We have fewer machines, and multiple users log into one machine, so doing something like paying per user for services like Patch Management are difficult to warrant the cost. I also feel a more complete package that includes common addon features; Patch Management and Password Manager, would be an improvement. It would also be nice if we could change packages, addons, and other billing services via self-service instead of reaching out to our account manager.
New systems are tough when it comes to an ROI, as a dollar amount for saving time on a sign-in can be tough to track. Like most new systems that makes things slightly easier to execute as an end user or manage or support, it really might come down to the existing structure of how a company manages its users.
The positives are always with the end user, which I have to say, Crowd was able to accomplish.
