Surveys reveal directory use in the U.S. and Europe

Late last month I reviewed the results of a survey of some attendees at NetPro’s Directory Experts Conference (DEC) in Reston, Va., which kicked off the series of newsletters about NT 4, upgrades and moving to a different operating system. I’ve now gotten the results of a similar survey that NetPro took of attendees at its European DEC in Amsterdam at the end of April. First, a comparison of results and then some comments on what it all means.

While the North American results are based on approximately 100 responses and the European results are based on about 30, the comparison is valid for those responses showing more than a few percentage points difference. Where the results are within four points of each other, I’ve considered them virtually identical. Frustrated statisticians are invited to demonstrate to me the error of my ways.

I’ll list the question and note the choice of answers and the percentage of European (E%) and American (A%) responses to each answer.

Q: Does your company plan to migrate Active Directory to Windows Server 2003?

Yes, it’s currently deployed……….E-56% A-48%

Yes, it’s planned for 2004…………E-26% A-40%

Yes, it’s planned for 2005…………E-4%   A-9%

No plans at this time………………..E-15% A-4%

Pretty similar, although the Europeans appear to be more decisive.

Q: What are your key administration areas of responsibility (check all that apply):

Active Directory……….E-85% A-88%

DNS………………………E-58% A-59%

Security…………………..E-26% A-46%

Exchange…………………E-30% A-33%

Entire network………….E-15% A-19%

Other………………………E-30% A-10%

Security seems to be broken out more to specialists in North America, and the response to “other” also indicates more generalists in Europe.

Q: Please circle the applications/services that currently rely or are slated to rely on Active Directory:

User authentication……….E-95% A-95%

Exchange……………………E-78% A-74%

File and print……………….E-70% A-86%

SQL………………………….E-26% A-58%

CRM software…………….E-11% A-15%

Accounting software……..E-11% A-10%

In-house app……………….E-26% A-39%

Other…………………………E-15% A-19%

Remarkably similar, except for SQL applications, which also might be reflected in “in-house” applications of which many are likely to be SQL related. Are Europeans using fewer SQL-based apps, perhaps still relying on dBase type flat-file databases, or are they not using Microsoft’s SQL-Server?

Q: Over the last six months have Windows security concerns increased or declined within your organization?

Increased………………..E-78% A-81%

Declined…………………E-0% A-0%

Stayed the same……….E-22% A-15%

No concerns……………E-0% A-0%

We’ll just note that everyone appears to be aware of security concerns, and perhaps the Europeans were a bit earlier in developing their awareness.

Q: Over the last six months have Active Directory-specific security concerns increased or declined within your organization?

Increased………………..E-48% A-85%

Declined…………………E-11% A-3%

Stayed the same……….E-37% A-10%

No concerns……………E-4% A-1%

This probably reflects Europe’s seemingly lower interest in deploying Active Directory rather than any lower concern for security.

In the next issue, I’ll compare answers on the topics of Active Directory/Application Mode (ADAM) and Microsoft Identity Integration Server (MIIS) then draw some overall conclusions. See you soon.