How long does it take your organization to get around to updating an Active Directory (AD) group? According to a survey recently compiled by Imanami, a provider of group lifecycle management solutions, you’re not a slacker if it takes you nine days. (Or, maybe more accurately, you’re not the only slacker.)
Imanami also discovered that in the organizations surveyed, two percent of the people still in Active Directory are no longer employed by the company, or 60 people in an organization of 3,000 users. Imanami surveyed IT pros involved in managing groups and other aspects of Microsoft Exchange management in organizations with at least 1,000 email users.
Based on responses, Imanami calculated that for every 1,000 users, some lucky IT pro spends about six hours per week managing groups in AD. Assuming an organization hires an IT pro at $90,000 a year and his or her job includes this task, Imanami calculates it costs $13,050 per year to manage groups in Active Directory.
“We know how much our solution costs—what surprised us was how much they're paying: one employee for every 5,000 users,” says Edward Killeen, Imanami’s director of sales and marketing. “At up to 250 employees, it's okay to manage groups manually. We usually find at 250 employees the pain starts---there are a lot of groups. Why not automate it and be done with it?”
“People aren’t aware of a solution,” Killeen says. “The good news is that you don’t have to buy ILM [Microsoft Identity Lifecycle Manager]. ILM comes with its own nomenclature. Most product suites are ‘Frankenproducts,’ made from acquired products put together. We’re purpose built. Our customers appreciate that they can deploy this without hiring someone.”
Imanami’s conclusions, among other things are that "Group management is not the most serious problem faced by Exchange managers, but it is a serious one that presents a number of security problems.” To compare your experience to those of the IT pros surveyed, visit Imanami’s website.