Dell Software Solutions accelerates Active Directory consolidation

Dell says that its migration, compliance, and identity and access management offerings enabled an end-to-end solution for international specialty chemicals company Johnson Matthey that reduced Active Directory (AD) migration time by 83 percent, and decreased support calls to local identity administrators by 98 percent.

A FTSE 100 company on the London Stock Exchange, Johnson Matthey needed to respond to its disparate working cultures across its 27 Active Directory forests. The company has 10,000 users in 30 countries, and recent growth led to a need to consolidate all of its AD forests into a single forest for centralised authorisation and administration of users and computers in the network. This would enable better integration with existing systems, heightened security, and more effective communication and collaboration between locations. Following the migration, the company needed to effectively manage the new AD, including the delegation of administrative rights to each office for local identity and access management.
Dell’s 3-pronged solution was identified by Johnson Matthey as the most comprehensive value proposition available by any vendor to manage the consolidated AD structure and provide identity management, including delegation of permissions to local administrators.

1. The Migration Manager for Active Directory component of the solution enabled migration into a single Active Directory forest, and ensured a smooth directory consolidation, with no impact on the majority of users - who were generally unaware of the migration. As part of the move, Johnson Matthey also was able to migrate 100 percent of email access for users without major data loss or business disruption.

2. Following the migration, Johnson Matthey needed long-term identity management, as well as enhanced, automated security for the newly consolidated AD environment. The company met this need with Dell ActiveRoles Server. By providing user and group account management, strictly enforced role-based security, day-to-day identity administration, and built-in auditing and reporting for Windows-centric environments, ActiveRoles Server enabled Johnson Matthey to:
· Tighten the security of Active Directory by consistently regulating administrative privileges through security policies
· Protect critical Active Directory data by strictly enforcing policies and eliminating unregulated access to resources
· Automate account creation and deletion for efficient user lifecycle management for AD
· Save time and reduce errors by providing automated group management

3. With the renewed emphasis on building and maintaining the most secure and efficient AD environment possible, the company also implemented ChangeAuditor™ for Active Directory to track and alert on configuration changes in real time, while allowing local level management of computers, servers and accounts. It was particularly important to allow each local office to tailor their security and access rights to local requirements.