Rutter Networking Technologies Blog

An interesting problem came up after a migration where the customer did not want to copy all the data from the old domain’s NETLOGON share into the new company’s Domain Controllers. However, there were several batch files and VB scripts referencing the old Domain Controller and NETLOGON path. We had to come up with a solution to allow the old files to execute properly. (There was a long term plan to migrate all this information to Group Policy objects, but that is months away.)

One key aspect of Exchange Online is the SSO experience. With single sign-on, also called identity federation, users can access services in Microsoft Office 365 for enterprises with their existing Active Directory corporate credentials (user name and password). Benefits of a native SSO experience include the reduction of support calls (forgotten passwords), and the means for administrators to manage account policies through their on-premise Active Directory ecosystem.
To get this level of fidelity, however, requires the adoption of Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS 2.0). Without diving into specifics, ADFS provides the means for SSO by securely sharing digital identity and entitlement rights (claims) across security and enterprise boundaries. So in a way, ADFS is your identity interface to the cloud (Office 365). So if your company values SSO as you move your mail to the cloud, ADFS would be needed if you are aiming for Exchange Online.

It has been in the works for quite some time, but a new version of NMAP was released this week! This is exciting news for those of us who rely on the NMAP tool in our day to day jobs. It's taken three years (the last major release was in 2009), but my early take on it regarding some basic testing is that it was well worth the wait. The creators have listed the following as the six major improvements/features:

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The trend of visual content within web pages is becoming one of the most effective and underrated marketing techniques used today. The use of pictures and images has become a very important marketing strategy used to create consumer engagement. Photographs are like the eye candy of content marketing. The only roadblock that keeps businesses from using this invaluable tool is answering the question “why?”

When it comes to discussions for potential e-mail solutions, many of our clients have shown profound interest in the cloud this past year. With the advancements of many SaaS providers in the messaging space, particularly with Exchange Online, it is easy to understand. Despite the perks of having e-mail services hosted in the cloud, the current adoption rate for messaging in the cloud is only at 4%,  according to Gartner. However, these numbers are expected to shift to 55% by the year 2020, with the adoption rate slowly growing over time.
Aside from economics, there are many factors which have stalled a good number of our clients' adoption of cloud messaging. To illustrate these considerations, we have decided it would be best to review some of the additional considerations for Exchange Online.

It is not uncommon for files & shares to grow significantly in a Windows Server based network. Even with SOPs & change control, it is still relatively easy to fall behind on resource access  management. Most organizations do not have a great deal of insight into who has access to what as the organization grows and deals with change.

Today, more than 70 percent of IT budget is spent simply to maintain and manage existing infrastructure (Forrester Research). The result: IT organizations must continually increase resources to maintain a complex and inflexible infrastructure versus using them to rapidly and effectively respond to business needs.

Rutter Networking has recently been approved for the ITC47 integration contract.  We are very proud to have received this opportunity.

As of now, the expected release date for Windows Server 8 is between Q3 2012 and early 2013. Our Directory & Messaging team at Rutter is excited for the introduction and the opportunities it will bring. One of the most anticipated features of this new edition of the Windows server is the injection of claims-based access control. For marketing purposes, this role has been branded as “Dynamic Access Control."