"Many enterprises increasingly make Active Directory (AD) strategic for account administration, for authentication, and as policy and event data sources used to demonstrate compliance," observed Gregg Kreizman and Perry Carpenter in the Gartner Publication, Market Options for Using Active Directory for UNIX Administration and Authentication (Gartner Research ID Number G00209086). They continued: "By using an AD bridge, the burden of provisioning (i.e., the time, money and effort of developing and maintaining the connectors) is virtually eliminated because the UNIX accounts reside and are managed in Active Directory (one of the most well-understood and ubiquitous identity repositories). Strategies like this (reducing the number of target systems and having the ability to "cluster" authentication and authorization target environments) are key to implementing IAM programs in a timely and budget-friendly manner. AD bridge solutions can also help an organization become more effective in meeting its regulatory obligations."

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