BYOD, are you a part of the problem?

 

A common user pet peeve is that organisations take too long to deploy new hardware, operating systems, and applications. BYOD enables users to embrace cutting edge technologies on their own, which reduces frustration and leads to happier employees.

A fringe benefit of happy, satisfied workers is increased productivity. Users who have the freedom to choose the platforms and devices that seem most intuitive to them are able to accomplish basic tasks faster. Users armed with newer technology can work more efficiently than users forced to work with systems they find frustrating or confusing.

We found that:

1. 67 % of people are using personal devices in the workplace whether its officially sanctioned or not.

2. More organisations prohibit BYOD than subsidise BYOD.

The above is a snippet taken from the article: BYOD–is it Good, Bad or Ugly from the User Viewpoint? All credit to Jeff Jones, for me it just struck a sore point…

What an Active Directory design should contain

 

Table of Contents from my last AD Design, just over 50 pages.

1. Executive Summary

1.1. Key Objectives

1.2. Assumptions

1.3. Future Environment

1.4. Current Environment

1.5. Existing MetaDirectory Services

2. Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)

2.1. Overview

2.2. Design Decisions

2.3. Hardware

2.4. Software

2.5. Forests

2.6. Schema

2.7. Domains

2.8. NetBIOS name

2.9. Trusts

2.10. Active Directory and DNS

2.10.1. Active Directory Integrated DNS

3. Active Directory Services

3.1. Domain Controllers

3.2. Read-Only Domain Controllers

3.3. Global Catalogue Servers

3.4. FSMO Roles

3.5. DNS Services

3.6. WINS Services Placement

3.7. DHCP Services Placement

3.8. Time Support

3.9. Forest and Domain Functional Levels

3.9.1. Domain Functional Levels

3.9.2. Forest Functional Levels

3.10. Legacy Clients

3.11. Non-Windows Clients

3.12. Federation services

4. Active Directory Organisational Unit Design

5. Active Directory Administration Design

6. Group Policy Design

7. Active Directory Site and Replication Design

7.1. Replication Overview

7.1.1. Intra-Site Replication

7.1.2. Inter-Site Replication

7.2. Site Link Bridges

7.3. SMTP Replication

7.4. SYSVOL Distributed File System Replication (DFS)

7.5. SYSVOL File Replication Service (FRS)

8. Active Directory User Account Policy

8.1. Service accounts

9. Certificate Services

10. Active Directory Auditing

11. Microsoft Key Management Services (KMS)

12. Naming Standards

13. WAN Diagram

13.1. Active Directory

13.2. SYSVOL

13.3. DHCP/WINS

14. Test Success Criteria

Appendix A. Acceptance

Appendix B. Server Specifications

Appendix C. Anti-virus Exclusions

Appendix D. Sources

Appendix E. Definitions