Central Versus Distributed Administration

Centralized administration and distributed administration have long been the debate amongst LAN and email administrators. Centralized administration provides for greater control and consistency. This is important from an operational standpoint. Historically, systems that were tightly held provided a reliable and stable environment. Unfortunately, the tightly held systems also reduced the responsiveness that the more distributed systems provided. Whether it was a password change or a logon script modification, having the capability to get this done locally, or at least in the same time zone, provided greater responsiveness.

In addition to responsiveness, distributed administration provided a forum for communicating the requirements of the system from many of the remote environments and users. A distributed system had the benefit of enabling users to have access to an environment that would best meet the needs of the local operating environment. Today, many of the systems have been brought under some sort of centralized control either through a strict policy of adherence to standards or through direct central administration—all changes are made from a single location.

With Active Directory, both centralized and distributed administration can occur simultaneously. Centralized architecture and design can take place for the benefit of consistent operations, reliability, and performance. Distributed administration of data can take place by enabling the end users and/or directory services lead the capability to modify specific fields in the directory. A simple example of this is to enable end users to modify the address field or phone number field in Active Directory for their entry.

In the initiation of the directory, the recommendation is to have representatives from several of the remote or distributed locations. Failing to gather feedback or to understand concerns about the design or operations of the environment can lead to mis-expectations and simple lack of use. Remote site involvement can also help in developing effective training. Training your users about the possible uses of the directory proves important in getting the most out of directory services.