Consulting with a Conscience™

A cruciallogics blog

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Written by Omar Rbati
on October 23, 2018
  • Active Directory has a long history stretching back to 2000, and there have been many updates to AD and the environments it supports since.
  • Many companies find themselves saddled with an old deployment that may have years of built-up compounded issues.
  • An Active Directory migration might help modernize your IT and up your competitiveness — but it can be expensive.

When is an Active Directory Migration Right?

It takes a lot to get an Active Directory migration right — and the consequences can be extremely disruptive if you get it wrong. The benefits of getting it done well include a securer and more easily manageable IT environment that work together to increase your competitiveness, but sometimes, you have no choice than to undergo the process.

  • You can no longer risk the out-of-date IT infrastructure tied into your AD
  • A merger or acquisition requires combining your domains
  • A consolidation across your company’s IT would mean far easier and cheaper maintenance of one domain than the many you currently support

There are many instances in which the Active Directory migration makes sense, and many forms that Active Directory migration might take. One common aim of a migration is to get everything managed under one domain. It's important to understand the security implications involved in cloud migration. Learn more about cloud migration security.

Benefits of a Single Domain

There are plenty of benefits to having a single domain AD setup. You enjoy centralized management of AD, have an easier time managing bring your own device, better Identity and Access Management over your users and cloud integrations, greater ability to demonstrate regulatory compliance, and much more.

All of this means a cheaper, better IT system as you’re able to reduce all those direct and indirect costs. And with improved control over the crucial security controls, you’ll be running safer on top of it. When these savings and benefits outweigh the potentially expensive upfront costs of the migration itself, it’s a migration worth doing.

It may be more cost effective to include your Active Directory migration as a part of a larger IT restructure. But whenever you do it, you’ll need to know what’s involved.

Do you need an Azure Active Directory Digital Transformation?

Active Directory Migration Tool: How it Helps

A migration of something as integral to many IT systems as Active Directory is inevitably going to be difficult. Knowing this, Microsoft developed the Active Directory Migration Tool. ADMT allows you to migrate across domains and forests with ease, fast.

You’ll be able to migrate your users, computers, groups, and other objects. It’s got a large number of wizards available to help you accomplish complex tasks — but it’s not going to eliminate the risk of something going awry.

It also can’t handle anything, and while some tasks may be relatively easy like migrating users, others are more involved. You may also want to be able to run some test cases before committing to the whole thing, do things one at a time over a longer period to limit disruption, or be confident you’re able to roll back in case of an unexpected complication.

Work with the Experts to Assure Success

When you’re facing a complex Active Directory migration, you may not have the appropriate expertise. That’s okay — and that’s where a third party like us can come in. As Microsoft Gold Partners, we’re ready to tackle the task of migrating the most intricate and troublesome deployments to more modern solutions.

If you’re interested in what we can do for your company’s IT, get started here.

Or maybe you'd like to learn how Azure brings IaaS and SaaS options to your company?

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