What is the Active Directory?
Originally posted Friday, July 14:
VUMC IT, in partnership with VUIT and the Enterprise IT Transition Management Office, has finished preliminary research with World Wide Technology, Inc. (WWT) and is ready to begin separating the legacy Directory Services environment. This project is one of the largest IT transition efforts and will create independent directory services for the Medical Center and the University.
The separation of Directory Services is necessary because the “@vanderbilt.edu” domain legacy AD environment are university assets. Additionally, creating a new directory services environment using innovative technology will enable the Medical Center to use the service more broadly than before.
Active Directory (AD) and Vanderbilt’s other directory services affect nearly every application an employee might use during the course of their daily work routine. AD is a redundant, highly available way to authenticate current faculty, staff, invited contractors, and other active users via their VUNetIDs and ePasswords.
The AD, in conjunction with other directory services, contains information vital to VUMC and provides proof of a user’s identity. Digital identity authentication is not only a necessary security mechanism, but it is also a building block for implementing additional security measures in the future.
The project is expected to take many months to complete and will affect everyone at the Medical Center. Our goal is to minimize disruption to the Medical Center community. Communications will be sent before any major events take place.