Using Active Directory groups with Google Apps

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So, you're moving to Google Apps and all the goodness that it offers.  You've seen the light (through the cloud) and are ready to embrace it.  Up until this day, you have been a loyal Microsoft shop and have most of your infrastructure tied up in it.  Most notably, Active Directory.

You use AD for everything, it is tightly wound in your network and you will not stop using it.  Google foresaw this and offered Google Active Directory Sync (GADS).  GADS synchronizes users, groups and contacts over to Google Apps and you are on your way.

What does this have to do with Imanami?  Well, you still have to manage groups and users in AD.  And that is what Imanami's GroupID does for you. 

• You can provision users and synchronize their information with the HR database or any other source(s).
• You can dynamically maintain security and distribution groups membership.
• You can have your end users manage their own groups and identity information.
• Manage group lifecycle, expiring and renewing groups as they are needed for the business.

And GADS does the heavy lifting of getting this information from Active Directory over to The Cloud.  Now you have accurate group information for network permissions and if it's mail enabled you sync it over to Google Apps.  And you don't have to do it twice.  Thanks, Google.

Of course, it works exactly like this with Microsoft's BPOS but I expected it out of them since there is AD on both sides (network and cloud).

People often wonder if AD will ever make it to the cloud.  Of course it might, but I think the more likely scenario is like this -- AD on your network managing information and access with applications on the cloud getting its data from AD.