Microsoft Active Directory.
Active Directory provides the means to manage the identities and relationships that make up your organization's network.
Integrated with Windows Server 2008, Active Directory gives you out-of-the-box functionality needed to centrally configure and administer system, user, and application settings.
A Variety of Features for Network Manageability
Active Directory helps you manage the identities and relationships that make up your organization's network through unique features specific to individual roles.
Active Directory federation Services (AD FS) provides Web single sign-on (SSO) technologies to authenticate a user to multiple Web applications over the life of a single online session. AD FS securely shares digital identity and entitlement rights, or "claims," across security and enterprise boundaries.
Active Directory Group Policy delivers and applies configuration or policy settings to targeted users and computers within as Active Directory environment. Windows Server 2008 supports a Central Store for centralised XML-based template storage, advanced logging, and enhanced Group Policy delivery and enforcement using Network Location Awareness.
Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AS LDS) provides directory services for directory-enabled applications. AD LDS does not require or rely on Active Directory domains or forests. AD LDS was previously known as Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM)
Your content can be protected on the go. You specify who can open, modify, print, or manage the content, and the rights stay with the content—even after it has been transferred outside of your organization.
A Read-Only Controller (RODC) allows organisations to easily deploy a DC in locations where physical security cannot be
guaranteed. RODC hosts a read-only replica of the database in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) for any given domain.
Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS) is information protection technology that works with
AD RMS-enabled applications to safeguard digital information from unauthorised use - both online and offline -
inside and outside of your organisation's firewall.