The main purpose of Active Directory

• Active Directory helps you organize your company’s users, computer and more.

IT admin uses AD to organize your company’s complete hierarchy from which computers belong on which network, to what your profile picture looks like or which users have access to the storage room.

The features of Active Directory

• Active Directory Services (AD) are the core functions in Active Directory that manage users and computers and allow sysadmins to organize the data into logical hierarchies.

• Active Directory Services (AD)  provides for security certificates, Single Sign-On (SSO), LDAP, and rights management.

The main components of Active Directory

• Domains

A group of objects, such as users or groups of devices, that share the same AD database makes up a domain.

• Organizational units

Within a domain, organizational units are used to organize objects within the domains.

• Active Directory trees

Multiple domains grouped together in a logical hierarchy make up an AD tree. The bonds between domains in a tree are known as "trusts."

• Active Directory forests

This AD functional level is made up of multiple trees grouped together. Trees in an AD forest share trusts, just like domains in a tree share trusts. Trusts enable constituent parts of a tree or forest to share things like directory schemas and configuration specifications.

Pros of Active Directory

• Centralized Control & Monitoring

The AD service offers a central place for administrators to control almost all things related to user access and network permissions.

• Seamless User Experience

Users get to enjoy smooth access once the AD infrastructure is set and all permission policies have been enforced. Even with cloud services, AD makes sure that users don’t fact lag in accessing resources.

• A Different Type For Every Different Need

There are many alternative versions of AD available for different scenarios, like AD Federation Services, Azure AD Directory Application Proxy, etc. 

• Far-reaching Policies With Group Policy Objects

GPOs are policy objects that help enforce global policies like password limits and system behavior. Microsoft offers a dedicated Group Policy Editor to help easily set up the policies and what level they will be enforced on. 
 

Cons of Active Directory

• Can Prove Expensive

A global infrastructure like AD can get pretty pricey to set up and maintain. Apart from that, once set up, changing its configurations is also expensive.

• Network Becomes Excessively Dependent on AD

With AD services handling the whole network and its capabilities, the network will also die if the AD shuts off for some reason.

• Security Risks

AD has several security risks, like root domains exposing the whole structure to vulnerabilities, unwanted permission inheritance, vulnerabilities due to inactive accounts, etc. 

References

1. What are benefits of Avtive Directory? (2021). Retrieved by https://www.mvorganizing.org/what-are-the-benefits-of-active-directory/#What_are_the_advantages_and_disadvantages_of_Active_Directory.
2. Active Directory Domain Services. (2021). Retrieved from https://searchwindowsserver.techtarget.com/definition/Microsoft-Active-Directory-Domain-Services-AD-DS.
3. Benefits of Active Directory (Pros and Cons). (2021). Retrieved from https://cloudinfrastructureservices.co.uk/benefits-of-active-directory/.