David,
the way to best reduce total cost of ownership on any network (and
the amount of work you have to put in on it) is to go to a standardized
desktop environment where possible. The fewer hardware and software
configurations an organization has, the easier, theoretically at least, it
will be to manage the infrastructure. So, were I in your shoes, I would work
on getting a standard approved for workstations on the network and begin
implimenting it before I tackled selling them AD. Win 2K Pro or XP Pro would
be my choice for the standardized OS. The easiest way to sell this to the
bean counters would be to highlight the insecure and unstable nature of all
Win9x boxen and the subsequent TCO. Keep track of the hours spent
troubleshooting, rebooting, cursing, etc. 9x boxen as compared to 2K/XP
boxen on your network. Present them with articles discussing the lack of
security in win9x (including Me). Basically, build a well documented case
for standardization with an OS designed for corporate environments. Include
the benefits of centralized administration from a domain, such as security,
remote administration, automated back-ups, the potential to add email
services, and the like. But I would seriously look at establishing some kind
of base-line for workstations... it will really make your job easier in the
short and long terms. Good luck!
John A. Bjelke
UNISYS
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
-----Original Message-----
From: David Bradford [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2002 7:19 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [ActiveDir] Why Active Directory?
Hi all;
For the last 2 months I've been given the additional job of "part time"
network admin for my company's network. Its currently 80 workstations, 2
windows 2000 servers and about 10 HP printers.
The workstations run either Win98/WinMe/Win2k Professional or WinXP
Home/Pro.
Its all running in workgroup mode and it's a pain in the butt to maintain
user accounts/passwords etc etc. 10 New users joined us today and they
needed access to both win2k servers and various printers connected to
various workstations, so off I went adding the same 10 users to all the
different machines.
Additionally, Winme and XP home sometimes can, sometimes cant see the
network. A reboot almost always cures the problem. Very annoying.
Of course, keeping track of service packs/patches - even deploying normal
apps is a monumental task. I can see why the previous network admin left!
Basically, the network is becoming unmanageable. I'm familiar with AD and
its obvious to me that a proper directory service will do wonders for the
network but management seem to think everything is running OK at present so
why would they want to buy 2 more servers to act as domain controllers and
upgrade everyone to either win2k or WinXP pro?
The existing win2k servers are used as our fileservers and are pretty busy
so upgrading them to DC's wouldn't be desirable.
Basically, I need some reasons that I can present to management why AD will
be such a great thing for us, I've suggested user management/deploying apps
as advantages but they don't seem impressed.
What else can I add?
Thanks;
David Bradford
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