Richard Berends, chief technical officer at Microsoft reseller Lankind, says that only now are a significant number of companies beginning to use the technology.įor its own part, Microsoft will be eager to persuade customers of the potential business benefits of moving to a directory service.
The upshot is that while many companies have implemented Windows 2000, few have chosen to switch on Active Directory. And once you have rolled out your directory you could get into trouble if, for example, you found that another business unit had been using a different naming scheme and that the two were not compatible. The Active Directory needs very careful planning, because once you have created your directory structure using the Domain Name Service (DNS) mechanism, it is non-reversible. And one the biggest reasons has been the planning requirements that it placed on organisations that chose to implement it. Customer adoption of the technology, which was in February 2000 as part the Windows 2000 operating system, has been shaky. Danny Bradbury looks at its strengths, weaknesses and quirks.Īctive Directory, the Windows directory service, has arguably been Microsoft's most criticised product in recent years. But, like entering a black hole, there can be no turning back once you go in. Organisations are starting to feel the gravitational pull Active Directory as it begins to gain strength in the market after two years in limbo.