Exchange Online—Evaluating Software-plus-Services

Active Directory Integration

Active Directory is a Microsoft directory service. It is used to provision, store, and manage users, groups, passwords, and contacts, among other objects. It is the basis for the global address list (GAL) that Outlook clients use.

There are two scenarios for Exchange Online. In the first scenario, the organization has no corporate Active Directory, and therefore provisions all users, mailboxes, distribution groups, and so on, through a Web-based management console in the Exchange Online system. In the second scenario, the organization has a corporate Active Directory and integrates the corporate and Exchange Online directories using synchronization tools.

Importance Rating. How important is integrating Active Directory ...