Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Microsoft Directory Synchronization Tool

I came across the Microsoft Directory Synchronization Tool a few days ago and, of course, I dove into the basic information about what this tool is and does. The description is:
The Microsoft Directory Synchronization Tool 9.1 synchronizes valid end-user proxy addresses (and their Safe Senders if available) from Active Directory to the Forefront Online Security for Exchange (FOSE) and Exchange Hosted Archive (EHA) network and populates the Administration Center with these accounts. This tool should be used if you have a subscription to the FOSE Filtering service or the post-8.1 Exchange Hosted Archive service.
This is a pretty innocuous scenario that this tool solves for customers but what I don't get is why big companies - like Microsoft (and Quest!) - don't re-use the technology they already have rather than developing new tools? So, in this particular case my question is why isn't the Microsoft Directory Synchronization Tool built on Microsoft's Identity Lifecycle Manager?

Why does it matter? Well, if it was my "tool" I'd want to use it to up-sell the full ILM to the customer that was using the tool. After all, I would expect they'd have other directory synchronization issues that I might be able to monetize. Or security tools that I could cross-sell to them since, after all, ILM is now part of the Forefront suite. Plus, if I were a customer would I want to be running this tool and possibly also ILM to solve other identity problems? Remember, simpler is better - one tool is better than two!

Maybe it is built on ILM and I'm just not "in the know"...

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2 comments:

Unknown said...

I just saw this tool also. We are also in a situation where we may need to use it. I would love to have something bolt onto ILM and have it part of an existing infrastructure rather than have to deal with setting up yet another sync service.

Unknown said...

The tool is built on a modified version of ILM 2007 FP1.