Item: Microsoft Azure Active Directory
Rating: 9
Author: Will Enestvedt

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it for centralized user management, for SSO to Microsoft and non-Microsoft applications, and for computer management via GPOs. It's used enterprise-wide. It saves users remembering many different passwords, and streamlines the creation, provisioning, and termination of user accounts. By centralizing passwords, users can use a stronger password, improving system security across all the SSO-enabled applications.

Pros and Cons

Creates user and machine accounts.
Integrates with application software for SSO.
Secures our user directory with stronger measures & faster patching than we might do in-house.

Integration with Mac OS isn't as smooth as with Windows clients.
Logging can be too verbose.
Integration with software from certain publishers isn't very easy, but that may not me AD's fault.

Most Important Features

Secure.
Integrates with other software.
Scriptable.

Return on Investment

Saved a lot of human labor hours.
Improved security posture by reducing the burden on users of managing multiple passwords.
Better availability & redundancy because it's hosted in the cloud (as compared to our own data centers).

Key Insights

Do you think Microsoft Azure Active Directory delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Microsoft Azure Active Directory's feature set?

Yes

Did Microsoft Azure Active Directory live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Microsoft Azure Active Directory go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Microsoft Azure Active Directory again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

For organizations without a strong information security team, that task is delegated to really capable staff (i.e., Microsoft). For organizations with many off-the-shelf and/or hosted applications, centralizing user management through SSO at Azure AD save an enormous amount of work. For organizations with a pure Windows environment, it would be amazing; for shops with heterogenous environments, it takes some more effort to implement.

Powerful, secure, and flexible platform for managing users & hosts

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Azure Active Directory