Alternative to Azure AD - JumpCloud
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The site says: Nobody really considers it easy to implement Microsoft Active Directory...
Really? I think that is a pretty bold lie. It's extremely easy to implement. I know very few people who would feel it was difficult to run AD. Some, sure, but few. It's generally considered one of the easier IT tasks.
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And it says: Nor are they complete solutions for an era where cloud infrastructure, Macs, and web applications are mainstays.
Not complete? In what way? AD handles Mac, Linux and web apps no problem. It's designed specifically to do that well.
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I'm sure that they have some neat technology and probably implement a lot of things well, but they are sure holding back a lot of details and relying on false statements to try to justify a need to non-technical people. If the website is all for clueless managers, full of false statements and zero technical details I just assume that the product is not good enough to be considered and they know it so hide it as much as possible.
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Really? Docker, Business Insider, Crossfit, Dollar Shave Club, and Career Buider. Are they including people that demo'd the stuff as clients? Maybe they're just including people that use AD.
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Free for 10 users or less seems to be the trend...
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@anonymous said:
Free for 10 users or less seems to be the trend...
It makes sense. Companies with ten and fewer have essentially zero change of being willing to pay for services like this. It's not even recommended by Microsoft to use AD at that size. It costs nothing to give away services to those companies but does get them addicted and very likely to spend $7 when they hit the eleventh user.
(I assume that the first ten users stay free, but I might be wrong.)
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It looks like JumpCloud supports more than just Windows 10 in their solution - that's a pretty big win for some people.
Though, considering we are moving away from legacy stuff, people really should be moving to Windows 10, or getting away from Windows altogether.
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@Dashrender said:
It looks like JumpCloud supports more than just Windows 10 in their solution - that's a pretty big win for some people.
But so does Azure AD, as we have seen. Not that any of us have tested that yet, but it seems like a no brainer.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
It looks like JumpCloud supports more than just Windows 10 in their solution - that's a pretty big win for some people.
But so does Azure AD, as we have seen. Not that any of us have tested that yet, but it seems like a no brainer.
I meant specifically Windows 8.1, Windows 7, not talking about Linux or Mac OS.
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Neat idea, but for the cost it just does not seem to be worth it. And support is not very broad.
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Greetings folks. My name is Greg Keller - I'm JumpCloud's Chief Product Officer ...so the product, its concept, and execution, falls on me. I am here to keep it technical and non-trolling (I would appreciate that of vendors on the threads I visit too). What I see here is deep passion ...and I love that. Our product was conceived initially to manage server infrastructure, primarily Linux (as was suggested above) before moving into the more traditional 'directory' space. So yes, we are covering user management, event logging, script execution and MFA (Linux and Mac) for desktops or virtualized Linux, Windows or Mac. I speak with 100's of customers a month either in person/directly in their company or via phone or webex and I hear a same constant story. Those who approach us almost exclusively have no Microsoft expertise on staff and are not interested in running directory software or servers any longer. In those cases, it is extremely hard for them to manage Microsoft. We target non-Microsoft organizations in large part. In most of these cases there 'may' be an LDAP present, but very likely their Directory literally is Google (G Suite) and have no strong unification of identity (e.g. covering their machine, web app or network authentications). The pattern is almost identical and they gain value nearly immediately (most typically leveraging LDAP-as-a-Service or RADIUS-as-a-Service features before moving deeper into other integrations). So, sincerely, our small yet growing company is seeing fairly substantial success in these profiles of customers...thousands of them...and they honestly may not look like yours. I would love to chat at any time with any of you but we first invite you to look at the product for free to truly assess for yourselves. It is exactly why we offer our free version...as well as to ensure small companies who can't afford time or capital for Directories have a great system to ensure better security for their own growing companies. Thanks for taking the time to read. Regards - Greg.
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@gregorymkeller I find that to be very counter-intuitive. You have organizations that can run Unix but can't run Windows? They may not want to, but I've never met a Linux admin that couldn't run Windows in their sleep. This is a strong message thought that there are many thousands of organizations with no Windows at all out there. And all of those not running any of the desktop OSes that we normally use here. Suggesting that it is just the tip of the iceberg.
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@scottalanmiller Hey Scott! Not 100% sure I am following your position but let me add some clarity. We absolutely have folks who run both Linux and Windows (and Mac). In many cases, they will not have staff who have (or want) to run Domain Controllers. They are just too focused on infrastructure (e.g. their platform) needs to defocus IT staff for owning the management of the servers. This is a reality that we experience every day. Again, it may not be like your company, but this is who we see in a vast majority of cases. They opt to move to services like ours and reduce the capex on servers and re-task IT resources towards other critical needs (more efficient employee on boarding, HCM integration needs, cloud-solutions research and implementation, etc.) I also want to re-enforce that a large swath of our customer base literally has a zero-MSFT policy. Literally, no Microsoft. I found that impossible to believe having built MSFT-specific software for nearly two decades, but I stress, it is a true mandate. And we hear it every day. The footprint of these companies is very similar: Bulk acquired and DEP'd Macs, AWS infra (mainly Amazon RH), web based/SaaS apps they subscribe to and Meraki running the overheads. Their IT staff are in their early to mid 20's, many never (and I mean that sincerely) having used MSFT before but use vi and can code (read: DevOps). So it's not even a variable in their decision-making on IT needs. Again, as a guy with some graying hair, I found it hard to believe but we are responding to a legitimate and thriving market who quite honestly leverage no MSFT in their organizations. As I type this, I have just flown back from Singapore visiting not one, but three large customers (3-4000 employees), who look and feel exactly like this. Although each of their finance teams were on Windows 8.1 clients (so not all truly 100% Mac). Again, I hope this helps you and I am always available to chat in person to talk more about what we're experiencing.
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@gregorymkeller This is of no bash to you or your company or product.
However, when I am asked to walk into a company of less than 10 users, I am mainly finding windows computers in, maybe, a workgroup structure, emailing files to one another. These computers are typically purchased from a box store and carried home/office in order to be setup. Unless they are somewhat tech savvy, they have never even heard of Linux, let alone went out to buy a Linux computer of some sort. The only reason why they have purchased Windows is because of brand name recognition and familiarity. Otherwise, they are none the wiser.
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@NerdyDad Absolutely! We have a ton of health care and other 'clinic' orgs who bulk-buy windows machines. In many cases, they can get away with Windows 10 and AAD along with Intune and AAD join to manage thier endpoints. Total MSFT solution and it's great. Yet others don't want AAD (they use G Suite as an example) and have Windows 7 or 8.x endpoints...and maybe some 10....and thus AAD is a non-starter. So they find us to drop our agent on their systems and get cloud-based directory coverage (along with RADIUS, LDAP and SAML services). Hope this helps!
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@gregorymkeller said in Alternative to Azure AD - JumpCloud:
@scottalanmiller Hey Scott! Not 100% sure I am following your position but let me add some clarity. We absolutely have folks who run both Linux and Windows (and Mac). In many cases, they will not have staff who have (or want) to run Domain Controllers.
Not wanting to I totally understand. We decommed them ourselves. We didn't want to run them that much
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@gregorymkeller said in Alternative to Azure AD - JumpCloud:
Again, as a guy with some graying hair, I found it hard to believe but we are responding to a legitimate and thriving market who quite honestly leverage no MSFT in their organizations.
I have no hair left, but it was grey before it went away, I've been around long enough that Windows as a mainstay felt like a passing fad
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For some reason, I'm wondering if @Dashrender got some kind of kickback...
@Dashrender, did your pockets get a little padded? Hmmm...
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Yesterday, I tested JumpCloud for half hour by creating a couple of users and systems and today I just finished a 1 hour session with one of their support agents. From an AD replacement perspective, their service is still in preliminary stage, or at least, not in a position to replace AD. You can not create or implement policies without going through command line or scripting. They will also need to prepare a list of policies available to implement using their service (at the moment, you will need to search their KB to see if a specific policy can be implemented or not).
However, it seems to be a good move if you do not have an AD already or you have a number of small/remote offices where implementing AD at each location is an overkill.
To summarize, I am thinking of using JumpCloud to manage my Sub-Saharan offices where I have only a few users at each location. Some control is better than no control, right :)?
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@sn said in Alternative to Azure AD - JumpCloud:
Yesterday, I tested JumpCloud for half hour by creating a couple of users and systems and today I just finished a 1 hour session with one of their support agents. From an AD replacement perspective, their service is still in preliminary stage, or at least, not in a position to replace AD. You can not create or implement policies without going through command line or scripting. They will also need to prepare a list of policies available to implement using their service (at the moment, you will need to search their KB to see if a specific policy can be implemented or not).
However, it seems to be a good move if you do not have an AD already or you have a number of small/remote offices where implementing AD at each location is an overkill.
To summarize, I am thinking of using JumpCloud to manage my Sub-Saharan offices where I have only a few users at each location. Some control is better than no control, right :)?
My understanding is that it is an Azure AD, not an AD, replacement at this point. Which I think is better for most SMBs, especially smaller ones and those that are more mobile. I'm not a fan of AD and GPO, they were good ideas 17 years ago, but lack a lot today. But Microsoft hasn't made great strides in replacing it yet (but are working on it with Azure AD.) Honestly at this point, I think that the Linux world has pulled ahead in desktop management.
