Chapter 4. Defining and Meeting Your Directory Requirements

"Why?"It is a simple question really, but one that is not asked often enough. Many organizations are in the habit of upgrading to the latest version of an application or operating system without really defining why. Some organizations that do articulate their reasons for upgrading restrict those reasons to specific Information Systems (IS) requirements without much consideration to user requirements. Usually there are several good reasons, both technical and business related, to upgrade software. However, those reasons should be balanced against the benefit to the organization and the cost of upgrading.

From this analysis comes a list of requirements that justifies the upgrade or migration to the new software—in this case Windows 2000 and Active Directory. This list of requirements is an integral part of the Active Directory architecture. If the items on this list are not met, then Active Directory does not provide the cost benefit promised.

This chapter describes how to create a list of requirements and how to map those requirements to Active Directory functionality.