Azure AD is a multitenant, cloud-based directory and identity management service from Microsoft. NOTE: In this article, the terms traditional AD and traditional AD DS, refer to the on-premises deployment of Active Directory and Active Directory Domain Services.Īzure Active Directory (Azure AD) is the Azure solution for identity and access management. The Enterprise Administrators are responsible for managing AD DS domain controllers, AD sites, trust relationships between the domains, Group Policies, backing up and restoring AD DS, etc. Some of the key features offered by AD DS includes:ĪD DS is managed by the organizations on-premises. These objects are part of the Active Directory domain, which allows the administrators to securely manage them through Group Policies. Organizations use AD DS to centrally manage all their resource objects, such as users, computers, printers, shared folders, groups, organizational units (OUs), etc. The Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), is the traditional on-premises version of domain services provided by AD.
Windows active directory domain services windows#
At high level, these identity solutions and feature sets are:Įnterprise-ready lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) server that provides key features such as identity and authentication, computer object management, group policy, and trusts.ĪD DS is a central component in many organizations with an on-premises IT environment, and provides core user account authentication and computer management features.įor more information, see Active Directory Domain Services overview in the Windows Server documentation.
Instead, you could just use Azure Active Directory.Īlthough the three Active Directory-based identity solutions share a common name and technology, they’re designed to provide services that meet different customer demands. For example, if you mostly manage cloud-only users that run mobile devices, it may not make sense to build and run your own Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) identity solution. This choice in identity solutions gives you the flexibility to use the most appropriate directory for your organization’s needs. To provide applications, services, or devices access to a central identity, there are three common ways to use Active Directory-based services in Azure.