Technology Focus
	Directory Services
		Design and Deployment
		Recommended Practice
		MIIS / Synchronisation
		Securing the Directory
		Group Policy
	Messaging & Collaboration
	Client Services
	Server Services
	Systems Management
	Recovery
	Business Continuity
	Security
	Virtualisation
	Application Virtualisation

Directory Synchronisation

All but the smallest of organisations will have user and object data stored in more than one directory. Any business that does have more than one directory will have concerns with ensuring the data across these systems are at all times correct and synchronised. Additionally, which directory will be the master for your organisation? Businesses have identified what a costly exercise it is to maintain networked systems in particular user administration.

Benefits of a Meta Directory or Synchronised Approach

• The reduction in overhead costs when maintaining the same data in more than one location

• Maintaining a high level of security by ensuring credentials and accounts are up to date everywhere all at once.

• Reduction in total cost of ownership

• Less erroneous data

• Less corrective actions

• Frees your IT staff to do more interesting and company driven work

• Reduce number of calls to your IT Helpdesk

• Updates are automatic (e.g., name changes)

• Eases migration - migrating from one directory based system (e.g., Novell NetWare) to a new infrastructure (e.g., Active Directory) will require a period of synchronisation between both directories.

What is Microsoft Identity Integration Server

Your IT staff probably spend a large proportion of their time on administering network accounts and groups creating new ones, adding them to the relevant groups, creating a mailbox, providing mainframe access, telephone system entries, remote access and so on. They also need to ensure that when an employee leaves, there access rights and accounts are removed or disabled immediately. This is often overlooked due to lack of process.

MIIS is a meta directory platform to provision and de-provision user accounts and groups, mailbox, etc across many systems such as Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange Server, Lotus Notes / Domino, SQL Server 7 and higher databases, Novell eDirectory, Oracle 8i / 9i databases, LDAP directory, IBM DB2 databases and more?

How MIIS will reduce management overhead

With Microsoft Identity Integration Server (MIIS) you can store and integrate identity information for organisations with multiple directories. In turn this will help reduce the total cost of ownership associated with managing identity information across your enterprise.

Consider a new employee is about to start in your company, your Human Resources department enters their personal details into your HR system, some of this, and new, information is then added to your payroll system, they are then allocated a telephone number and as such added to your PBX system, your IT department is then requested to provide them with a network logon, mailbox, applications and workstation and finally they require access to specific company databases and mainframe. Can you ensure this all happens correctly, at the right time i.e. before the new employee starts and consider the volume of paperwork and emails that will pass between teams to make this work.

MIIS can orchestrate these processes automatically. The key is understanding the processes of your organisation and mapping them to MIIS. Management overhead and therefore support costs can then be reduced significantly and quickly.