AWS Managed Microsoft AD / Blogs / Perficient

AWS Managed Microsoft AD is an Amazon Web Services (AWS) service that provides a managed version of Microsoft Active Directory in the cloud. It offers the familiar features and capabilities of Microsoft AD without the need for infrastructure deployment, management, and maintenance.

Here are some key features of AWS Managed Microsoft AD:

1. Managed Service: AWS handles the underlying infrastructure, including patching, backups, and ensuring high availability, allowing you to focus on managing your directory and user accounts.
2. Compatibility: AWS Managed Microsoft AD is fully compatible with Microsoft Active Directory, enabling standalone directory usage or integration with existing on-premises AD environments.
3. Multi-Availability Zone Deployment: It is deployed across multiple availability zones within a region, ensuring fault tolerance and high availability for directory services.
4. User and Group Management: You can create, manage, and organize user accounts and groups using the AWS Management Console or APIs, providing control over access to AWS resources and applications.
5. Domain Trusts: AWS Managed Microsoft AD supports establishing trust relationships with on-premises Active Directory domains, allowing extension of existing AD infrastructure to AWS.
6. Group Policies: You can define and enforce group policies across the AWS Managed Microsoft AD directory, ensuring consistent configurations and security settings for users and resources.
7. Integration with AWS Services: It seamlessly integrates with various AWS services, including Amazon EC2, Amazon RDS, and AWS Single Sign-On, enabling authentication and authorization using AD credentials.
8. Security and Compliance: AWS Managed Microsoft AD includes built-in security features like encryption, secure remote access and support for multi-factor authentication (MFA). It also helps meet compliance requirements such as HIPAA and PCI DSS.

Above attached Image for the Detailed architecture of How AD has been linked to other services.

It’s important to note that AWS Managed Microsoft AD should not be confused with the AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory, which is a separate service providing a fully managed, standalone Microsoft AD in the AWS cloud.