With Active Directory, Microsoft has provided administrators with a powerful directory service to organize network data and to control access to network resources from a central point. However, “powerful” by necessity also means complex, and the complexity of Active Directory has probably contributed to slowing down the rollout of Windows 2000 and 2003 servers. Initially, many organizations found simply migrating their flat NT4 domain structures into a more sophisticated Active Directory wrapping to be a significant challenge. By now, many have defined their Active Directory Forests, survived an often cumbersome deployment process, and seen their directories mature into efficient tools for centralized administration. Policies have become the levers of network management, and, as a result, Active Directory has become a repository holding extremely sensitive data.
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