What are the pros/cons of moving to azure ad from windows AD when you still have cloud IaaS servers in Azure?

Wagner, Richard (Cognizant) 66 Reputation points
2022-06-14T23:45:59.197+00:00

Hello, we are moving more servers from on prem to Auzre IaaS, PaaS and SaaS. We are hybrid today and sync our users using AD connect. By the end of the year we should have all our servers in Azure IaaS and all domain controllers will be in Azure. We use GPOs and OUs quite a bit. Are we able From a server perspective does it make sense to ever move away from Windows AD at this time? I don't think Intune is a replacement for server GPOs correct? Azure AD DS is just going to sync users to a seperate domain correct? I can add azure servers to the domain created in the AADDS domain and use one user name and password but what else do i lose by moving away from Windows AD and go to Azure ADDS? Thanks

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  1. Limitless Technology 39,926 Reputation points
    2022-06-15T15:28:14.623+00:00

    Hello

    Thank you for your question and reaching out. I can understand you are having query related to Azure and On-Prem AD.

    Azure Active Directory is the cloud version of the Windows Server Active Directory. Well, that’s not strictly true. Technically speaking, Azure AD is more than a directory or domain controller, and it doesn’t have the same features as Active Directory. As an identity and access management solution, Azure AD has more capabilities, but they are different from those of on-prem AD.

    In short, there is no direct migration path from on-prem AD to Azure AD. However, you can combine the two to get the best of both worlds. You can synchronize your on-prem directories with Azure AD and still preserve your GPOs and OUs. This is possible through the Azure AD Connect Sync Server that enables Azure AD to authenticate on-prem users.

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