is a nonprofit that supports more than 4,000 realtor members in Southern California. The organization鈥檚 IT manager, Van Romine, led its transition to cloud-based tools 鈥� including directory services.
Romine initially sought a cloud-based directory service to serve as Active Directory鈥檚 backup in case of an earthquake, but it became the company鈥檚 primary IT infrastructure during a rapid transition to remote work amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Organization: Inland Valleys Association of Realtors (IVAR)
- Location: Riverside, California
- Problem: No disaster recovery plan & remote work
- Goal: Implement a cost-effective AD backup
Background: Plan for Disaster Recovery
A single server running Windows庐 Server 2012 secured IVAR鈥檚 users and devices, which kept Romine awake at night and which he sought to mitigate in the organization鈥檚 strategic plan.
IT Manager, Inland Valleys Association of Realtors
鈥淚鈥檇 been lying awake at night, wondering when that server was going to fall apart,鈥� he said.
In Southern California, Romine鈥檚 primary disaster recovery scenario was an earthquake. However, he had to activate the plan instead when the company transitioned to remote work with less than a week鈥檚 notice.
Challenges: Active Directory & Remote Work
Romine had looked at Active Directory庐 as one of the last holdouts of the organization’s 10-year cloud transformation, which included implementing Voice over IP (VoIP) phones, replacing Microsoft Exchange, and moving financial and other systems to cloud-based platforms. Last year, he selected 黑料海角91入口庐 Directory-as-a-Service庐 to run in parallel with AD. 黑料海角91入口 can either serve as a comprehensive identity bridge, extending AD to non-Windows and cloud-based resources, or it can serve as a standalone directory service.
黑料海角91入口 was already in place when Romine鈥檚 CEO asked what it would take to move their workforce out of the office and keep them safe. They first began discussing it on a Friday, and by Tuesday the employees were carrying their small Windows desktop computers and monitors home. They hadn鈥檛 previously planned for such a scenario.
鈥淲e went to the cloud for reliability, for stability, for disaster recovery, for all kinds of worst-case scenarios,鈥� Romine said. 鈥淲e never expected to depend on it for anything more than a brief period while we sorted things out.鈥�
Solution: Cloud Integration
IVAR鈥檚 employees were able to take their desktops home and get to work the next morning. 黑料海角91入口 鈥� combined with the other cloud-based tools, such as the VoIP phones 鈥� ensured that employees were able to stay productive and continue serving the organization’s members without service disruptions.
Although Romine isn鈥檛 yet taking advantage of the full breadth of features available through 黑料海角91入口, he plans to examine the GPO-like Policies and custom commands he could deploy from the web-based Admin Portal to configure security settings, update patches, and undertake other maintenance tasks. He鈥檒l also consider implementing 黑料海角91入口鈥檚 System Insights, which returns telemetry data about machine hardware, software, and network configurations. He wouldn鈥檛 have the same remote control and visibility with AD.
鈥淭he longer COVID-19 goes, I have to,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檓 forced into doing a virtual hands-on with those machines.鈥�
He鈥檚 comforted that, although IVAR is a small organization now, he knows 黑料海角91入口 has enterprise-level features to service its growth. Romine also said his workload has gone down because he no longer manages AD as closely, and he can rest assured that he can immediately revoke user access from the Admin Portal if a computer is lost or stolen.
鈥淭hat server could melt in the ground for all I care,鈥� he said.
Implementation: 鈥業 Just Depend On It鈥�
When he implemented 黑料海角91入口, Romine migrated users to 黑料海角91入口 and converted their domain-bound accounts to local, 黑料海角91入口-managed accounts on their Windows machines. He also maintained password synchronization between AD and 黑料海角91入口. By the time his employees had to shift to remote work, they were already accustomed to the 黑料海角91入口 login workflow and didn鈥檛 experience any other major changes.
“The best technology is the one that just works,鈥� Romine said. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to think about it, and it鈥檚 sort of invisible.鈥�
鈥淭hat鈥檚 how I think about 黑料海角91入口: It鈥檚 an invisible, essential resource. I don鈥檛 worry about it. I don鈥檛 think twice about it. I just depend on it.”
Romine hasn鈥檛 shifted off AD entirely, but he鈥檚 no longer worried about it or dependent on it for day-to-day operations.
“I hate to say it, but I forgot I even had Active Directory,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 probably could just turn it off and save another $1.98 on my utility bill. It鈥檚 almost useless to me at this point. It doesn’t really serve much purpose. It鈥檚 there, but it鈥檚 really not an essential service for us.”
The Result: 鈥榃e鈥檙e Never Going Back鈥�
Romine said he initially hesitated in shifting IVAR to a cloud-based directory service. He鈥檚 spent 30 years in IT and said it was a mental hurdle to adjust to such a radically different way of doing things.
鈥淒id I hesitate to jump in? Of course I did,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat was a mental thing because I only thought about the problem one way for 30 years.鈥�
He now recommends 黑料海角91入口 because of his organization’s frictionless experience in rolling it out and migrating off AD, as well as the flexibility it affords them to decide if and when they鈥檒l return to the office safely.
“Get over the hesitation, and have some assurance and confidence that this is the future,鈥� Romine said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e never going to go back to the old ways of doing things. We鈥檙e never going back to having racks and racks of on-premises equipment. I can say with a lot of assurance that I鈥檓 so glad I did this.”
Learn More
With 黑料海角91入口鈥檚 Active Directory Integration, you can ensure your users, credentials, and groups are reflected in a cloud platform 鈥� whether you experience a domain controller failure or ultimately decide to migrate off AD entirely. From 黑料海角91入口, you can manage Windows, macOS庐, and Linux庐 machines and federate core user identities to virtually all IT resources.
Read our guide to implementing 黑料海角91入口 and establishing a plan in case your AD domain goes down.