Essential Software for Efficient IT Operations in Small to Medium Organizations: Windows Server and Office 365 (Microsoft 365)
Windows Server and Office 365 (Microsoft 365) stand out as the two vital software solutions that enable small to medium-sized organizations to streamline their IT infrastructure and operations effectively.
These Microsoft products have gained widespread adoption globally, with Microsoft Windows commanding a substantial market share, reaching over 69% as of December 2023, according to Statista.
The core engine of Windows servers plays a crucial role, serving as a prerequisite for the server to function as a domain controller and contribute significantly to server networks worldwide.
The core engine of Microsoft Windows Server is Active Directory (AD).
Active Directory (AD) serves as the cornerstone of the server, offering authentication for all resources attempting to access domain resources within the infrastructure. Given its pivotal role, the effective management and administration of AD become paramount.
This article delves into understanding AD, its functionality, structure, and advantages. Additionally, we will explore some of the top software solutions utilized for efficient active directory management.
Active Directory (AD)
Active Directory (AD) is a collection of services and databases operating on Microsoft Windows Server, crucial for configuring a Windows server as a domain controller. Without AD, a Windows server functions solely as a standalone server, lacking the capabilities of a domain server.
Functioning as a database, AD stores comprehensive information about the infrastructure, encompassing users, computers, groups, applications, and various objects, categorized based on their names and attributes.
AD streamlines administrative tasks by facilitating the management of access control and privileges for network resources and objects. Its framework ensures user authentication and the provision of necessary privileges to access network resources or objects. Additionally, AD offers ancillary services such as Single Sign-On (SSO), security certificates, LDAP, and access rights management.
The spectrum of services provided by AD extends to Lightweight Directory Services (LDS), Certificate Services, Active Directory Federation Services, and Rights Management Services.
How Active Directory (AD) is structured?
AD stores data in a hierarchical structure comprising domains, trees, and forests.
- Domains: A domain represents a group of objects such as users, groups, and devices, which share the same AD database.
- Trees: One or more domains form a single Tree and multiple domains in a tree trust each other.
- Forest: A Forest is a group of Trees. The trees in the same forest trust each other, and will also share directory schemas, catalogs, application information, and domain configurations.
- Organizational Units (OU): An OU is used to organize users, groups, computers, and other organizational units.
About Office 365
Office 365 is a cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) offering from Microsoft, available on a subscription model.
This software suite encompasses the same features found in traditional versions of Microsoft Office, including applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and additional tools such as Access and Publisher.
With its cloud-based nature, Microsoft Office 365 enables business users, whether small or large, to operate from any location, eliminating the need for external infrastructure while ensuring top-notch security through cloud storage.
According to the latest Statista report, over 731,000 companies in the United States alone utilize Office 365, with the global count exceeding one million companies.
While Office 365 provides a comprehensive end-to-end solution, we will explore third-party Office 365 management software designed to enhance organizational IT infrastructure management, offering improved security, regular backup and restoration capabilities, extensive reporting for data compliance and auditing, and overall organizational performance enhancement.
Why use Active Directory (AD) and Office 365 Management Software?
While Microsoft’s Active Directory (AD) services offer flexibility and power, the growing complexity of networks and infrastructures prompts organizations to seek solutions that streamline operations and management. AD faces limitations in terms of backup, restore, automation, and reporting capabilities.
The widespread adoption of Office 365 encounters challenges such as managing a limited number of users concurrently, lack of support for CSV-based group user changes, and more. Customizing Office 365 often requires IT admins to resort to scripting languages like PowerShell, leading to time-consuming and cumbersome processes.
Administrators find themselves toggling between multiple consoles to manage Active Directory, Exchange Server, and Office 365 environments, adding to their workload and elongating task completion times.
Moreover, the available backup and restore options are limited, and automation features are scarce, making automation increasingly crucial in the face of growing manual tasks.
To address these challenges, let’s explore external software solutions designed to manage Active Directory and Office 365 more efficiently, tackling issues such as group add-ons, automation, delegation, compliance, security, and more. Let’s delve into a review of software solutions that facilitate the seamless management and operation of Active Directory and Office 365:
ManageEngine ADManager Plus
The award-winning ManageEngine software, boasting over 120 accolades, offers affordable IT management solutions for businesses of all sizes. Covering service management, operations management, active directory, and security needs, the company asserts that three out of five Fortune 500 companies utilize ManageEngine products.
Among its offerings, the ADManager Plus software stands out as a web-based platform designed to streamline the management of Active Directory (AD), Office 365, and Exchange, all from a centralized console.
This tool facilitates the consolidation and centralization of AD reports, simplifies the delegation of administrative tasks, aids in maintaining clean AD structures with minimal effort, and ultimately saves administrators significant time.
ADManager Plus enhances the day-to-day tasks of system administrators, allowing for the seamless creation of group user accounts in AD and the modification of user account properties, including Exchange Mailbox and Terminal Services properties.
Furthermore, the software supports user and Active Directory compliance, offering a robust set of built-in reports totaling 200, ensuring effortless maintenance and auditing.
Features of AD
- Reports on compliance with government regulations such as SOX, HIPAA, GLBA, PCI, and others.
- Create and delegate security roles to grant/revoke permissions
- Automate regular AD tasks backup, restore, users provisioning, clean up inactive users, follow-up tasks, etc.
Managing Office 365 with ADManager Plus
ADManager Plus offers seamless Office 365 management without the complexities and limitations. This software empowers users to download reports on active and inactive users, as well as license details, without the need for intricate scripting languages.
With the ability to generate over 80 preconfigured reports covering users, groups, contacts, Office 365 licenses, Exchange mailboxes, and Office 365 web applications, the software eliminates the need for intricate scripts. These comprehensive reports simplify the reporting process, enabling administrators to make informed decisions for effectively managing a well-organized Office 365 environment.
ADManager Plus goes beyond reporting capabilities and extends its support to group user management, contact management, automation, and report scheduling.
Features:
- Flexible license management for Office 365
- Automate daily Microsoft 365 admin tasks with simple one-click actions and view a detailed history of all automated tasks
- Reports can be scheduled, archived, and emailed.
- View detailed information about Office 365 environments with pre-configured reports
The software streamlines the administration and oversight of Active Directory and Office 365, elevating it to new levels of usability, reporting, security, fault tolerance, and more. With its comprehensive reports, the software proves invaluable for ensuring compliance and facilitating efficient management, making it an ideal tool for administrators, auditors, and managers.
Available in three editions—free, standard, and professional—the free edition comes with limitations on AD objects. The full version of the software is available for a 30-day evaluation, with pricing starting at $595.00 per year.
Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365
To ensure the security of data on the Office 365 platform, Veeam backup provides a comprehensive solution, recognizing the critical importance of data security for any organization. While Microsoft Office 365 offers stability and flexibility for various applications, the priority must be data security. Statistics indicate that 85% of Microsoft 365 users have been impacted by data breaches.
Veeam, a highly acclaimed software with 5.8 million contracts and over 200 awards, is utilized by 69% of 2,000 global companies. It serves as an end-to-end backup and restoration solution for Microsoft products, covering Office 365, Exchange Server, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams. The software goes beyond data protection, providing safeguards against ransomware and offering comprehensive protection for on-premise and cloud environments.
By employing Veeam, organizations mitigate the risk of losing access and control over crucial elements, including office files, Microsoft Teams email data, SharePoint sites, documents, libraries, OneDrive accounts, and settings. This ensures that data remains perpetually secure and accessible. Beyond Office 365, Veeam extends its backup solutions to cover Windows, Linux, NAS, VMware, Azure, AWS, Nutanix, Active Directory, and MySQL.
Features
- Back up data every five minutes and restore flexibility in more than 40 ways
- Allows you to set the frequency and time for Exchange and Sharepoint data to reduce data center impact
- On-premises and cloud backup options such as AWS, Azure, and IBM Cloud
- Detailed and sophisticated archive search to recover accurate data to address disruptions in your business
Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 is available in annual subscriptions ranging from 1 to 5 years. The software is free to use for 30 days before being deployed to the live environment. Licenses are available for a user base, allowing flexibility to add licenses as the number of users increases.
Datto SaaS Protection
Datto SaaS Protection delivers a comprehensive data protection solution catering to Microsoft 365, covering Exchange, Calendar, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams data. With a backup frequency of three times a day and flexible recovery options, this software is particularly tailored for Managed Service Providers (MSPs). It seamlessly integrates SaaS protection and defense tools, providing robust safeguards against phishing scans and cyber threats.
Designed to enhance data protection, Datto SaaS Protection ensures effective phishing prevention through frequent archiving and swift data recovery. The platform offers a centralized and scalable console, empowering MSP customers to counteract ingestion attempts, manage data quarantine, and streamline archiving processes.
In summary, the Datto SaaS Protection Platform is a comprehensive solution facilitating data compliance, ensuring business continuity, and fortifying security—a vital tool for the success of both small and large businesses.
Top Features
Protection against malicious cyber threats and data deletion errors
- Advanced threat protection that detects zero-day threats at first encounter, not days later
- Identify unknown threats instead of looking for known security threats
- Protect OneDrive folder from malware and one-click recovery
- Auto archive for OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, Gmail, Google Contacts, and additional archives whenever you need them
If you are looking for a business continuity solution to protect your data from cyber threats and data loss, then Datto is one of the disaster recovery tools. This license is user-based and available upon request.
Quest
Quest specializes in offering solutions for the management, migration, and security of Active Directory (AD), Azure AD, and Hybrid AD.
Their AD migration and consolidation solution stand out for its capability to reorganize a live or production environment without causing service interruptions.
Quest streamlines various day-to-day AD management tasks, providing efficiency gains and cost savings. This includes managing AD accounts and groups, implementing group policies, conducting health and availability checks, and more.
When it comes to AD security, the Quest platform elevates protection levels by identifying compromises, preventing breaches, and mitigating threats. The software features real-time scanning of user activity and issues alerts for suspicious behavior.
Quest offers a limited-time trial for their software, and pricing details are available upon request.
Adaxes
Adaxes stands out as an award-winning advanced automation and management platform designed for efficient management of Active Directory, Microsoft 365 (Office 365), and Exchange.
This user-friendly software streamlines daily activities, automates repetitive tasks, and enhances the security of both Active Directory and Microsoft 365.
Notably, Adaxes offers comprehensive user lifecycle management automation, handling tasks like mailbox assignments, Microsoft 365 license allocations, activation of user-specific Skype accounts, creation of home folders, sending welcome emails, and much more.
As a web-based platform, Adaxes provides role-based access control for users and groups, ensuring precise and secure permissions in alignment with enterprise data standards.
Its single centralized console, coupled with deep customization options, facilitates the management of Active Directory, mailbox configuration, and Microsoft 365 license management.
IT administrators can automate and schedule daily tasks, saving time and person-hours. The software also offers access to various types of reports, with over 200 preconfigured reports available and the ability to customize reports based on specific requirements.
Features
- Reduce workload as most user management tasks can be automated
- Enhanced security through permission-based workflows and a role-based security
- Effective AD environmental audit due to a comprehensive reporting model
- Automate the creation of mailboxes, distribution lists, and mail-enabled recipients
- Self-recovery password from login screen for macOS users and Widows
Adaxes universal web UI can be used by admins, helpdesk, HR, managers, and other employees to perform their administrative tasks for AD, Exchange, and Microsoft 365.
The software can be tested for free for 30 days. The license policy is based on the number of active users in AD. Perpetual licenses start at $1600 for a minimum of 100 active users.
AdminDroid
AdminDroid serves as a comprehensive tool for monitoring, analyzing, and generating over 600 reports for the entire Office 365 suite, including Azure AD, Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, Skype, and Microsoft Teams.
Designed to manage the complete Microsoft 365 stack, AdminDroid incorporates innovative features like micro-level delegation, advanced scheduling, AI-based reporting, and more. With a user base of 60 million across over 110 countries, it provides a robust solution for organizations.
AdminDroid offers a detailed overview of current SharePoint settings, permissions, sharing invites, and document permissions. Routine administrative tasks can be delegated, allowing users to access or monitor specific Microsoft users, groups, mailboxes, and teams.
Its powerful alerts feature can detect new and unusual events, issuing warnings for failed logins and forced attempts, fortifying the security of the Office 365 environment.
The software adds an extra layer of security through behavioral analysis, supporting forensic investigations, fraud detection, and data breach inquiries.
AdminDroid enables the generation of various statistical and audit reports covering licenses, groups, security, mailbox size and usage, email traffic, spam, malware, and more.
Features
- Monitors, every activity inside Office 365 and does research on anonymous activity
- Over 45 preconfigured signals to protect Microsoft 365 infrastructure
- Delegate effective management of resources, reports, and dashboards
- Detailed usage and security reports help comply with audits such as HIPAA, SOX, FISMA, ISO 27001, and others.
AdminDroid has a free version and premium editions like Standard and Pro. The premium edition can be tested for free for 15 days. Prices start at $49 per year for 150 users.
Imanami GroupID
GroupID provides solutions for Active Directory and Office 365, offering automation, delegation, administration, and lifecycle management for users and groups.
The software earned the 2021 Gartner Peer Insights Award for customer input in identity management and governance.
Its automation platform streamlines the management of groups, users, and permissions for various organizations, saving time and enhancing precision and security.
With a synchronization mechanism that identifies AD changes and propagates data across all platforms, including on-premises, hybrid, and cloud environments, GroupID ensures consistency.
The identity and access management delegation feature simplifies intricate tasks like user provisioning, de-provisioning, and other administrative activities through a user-friendly web portal.
Features
- Transfer and terminate accounts at the touch of a button
- Group and user management solutions help you make smart and timely decisions regarding attestation requirements.
- Provides a detailed view of unstructured data
- Reduce human error with query-based group definitions
- Improve directory consistency and security by ensuring users don’t have excessive privileges
GroupID ensures a secure and straightforward installation and maintenance process. It empowers IT administrators to automate and enhance AD and Office 365 functionalities, effectively managing IT infrastructure while ensuring security.
The platform seamlessly integrates with major directories, including AD, Azure AD, shared LDAP-based directories, and messaging platforms like Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft 365, and Google Workspace for business applications. A free 30-day trial is available, and pricing details can be obtained upon request.
Conclusion
Ensuring the security and efficient management of Active Directory comes with significant costs and time commitments. Manual tasks, such as granting access permissions to domain groups, cleaning up unused accounts, and addressing potential errors, can be challenging and compromise security.
In the current complex and geographically distributed infrastructure, automation of AD and Office 365 processes is crucial. The recommended solution to address these challenges is to leverage the software mentioned above. Conducting a trial run allows you to assess feasibility before making an informed decision to purchase the software that best suits your environment.
