The recent huge increase in remote users, especially those that work remotely from multiple locations/devices, has spurred a change of thought by current IT professionals. While Active Directory and OpenLDAP services have worked well in on-premise environments they are not ideal for these new needs. A new direction has transpired, a domainless directory services direction.

What is a Domainless Directory Service?

Directory services for the domainless enterprise are entirely cloud-based and platform-agnostic. They perform as the authoritative repository for digital identities and can federate those identities everywhere they’re needed via an internet connection. – Jumpcloud

Each IT resource now has its own tight perimeter. This means instead of functioning essentially unsecured within the confines of a hardened larger perimeter after authenticating once, identities and access rights are constantly being checked and verified. Users access their resources directly over a standard internet connection, rather than routing through a domain for authentication. And in place of a domain controller, a cloud directory service handles access management, user authentication, and security enforcement. – Learn Hub

Why the Domainless Directory Services Push?

A need for a new, more flexible, infrastructure that could be established with an internet connection became obvious with the introduction of Covid-19. Overnight, workers became remote and needed corporate resources simply, quickly and securely. A domainless enterprise model became the new working IT infrastructure.

Active Directory and domain models have struggled to integrate themselves into the internet access and cloud resources. Securing IT resources allowing users access from Mac, Windows, Linux, web applications and cloud servers, and to do it remotely, creates multiple access points and therefore possible security breaches.

The idea of managing multiple operating systems, web applications, mobile applications and local software can be intimidating. A domainless enterprise can help alleviate these different IT resource management and security concerns.

Properly configured domainless enterprise and environment can be considerably more secure than traditional domain and Active Directory setups created in the 1990s. The domainless environment wraps around each remote or local user, their Mac, Linux, Windows and IT resources required to securely access from any location. It becomes quickly apparent why the widespread acceptance by IT, especially with the current remote needs by their users.

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