Active Directory Unification and Attribute Cleanup

I recently posted about Active Directory Unification. The main points were (1) that there is value in AD consolidation and (2) that there's a right way to do it to meet the intended goals.

Sander Berkouwer posted earlier this month on Active Directory attribute integrity. He makes the point that with all the tools Microsoft provides to enable tighter management of identities and access (FIM, ADFS, ADRMS, DAC), Active Directory Cleanup is more important than ever. Berkouwer writes:

"When these attributes are inconsistent, access to files, apps, partners and cloud functionality becomes inconsistent. If you think it won’t happen to you, think twice. During the first internal Microsoft deployment of Dynamic Access Control, attribute inconsistency was the first encountered problem."

Absolutely.

Most people that I speak with jump into the benefits that cleanup will have on the AD Unification process. The reality is that the real value of cleanup is enabling the right functionality and access controls after the unification process is complete. (Of course, as I wrote, it's never really complete - it's not a onetime event.)

It's worth making the distinction.