Microsoft Active Directory

Microsoft Active Directory is a collection of services that help you manage users and devices on a network. Microsoft Active Directory is used by Windows applications to manage access and enable single sign-on (SSO). For example, you can manage access to Microsoft SharePoint using different Microsoft Active Directory security groups. You can create a group for administrators and another group for users with read-only access. You also can enable users to sign in to Microsoft SharePoint and other SSO-enabled Windows applications using a single set of Microsoft Active Directory credentials.

You can extend your on-premises Microsoft Active Directory domain to the AWS Cloud more easily using AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory, also known as AWS Managed Microsoft AD. AWS Managed Microsoft AD enables you to use a managed Microsoft Active Directory on the AWS Cloud. AWS Managed Microsoft AD is built on actual Microsoft Active Directory and does not require you to synchronize or replicate data from your on-premises Microsoft Active Directory to the AWS Cloud. You can use standard Microsoft Active Directory administration tools and take advantage of built-in Microsoft Active Directory features, such as Group Policy, trusts, and single sign-on (SSO). With AWS Managed Microsoft AD, you can easily join Amazon EC2 and Amazon RDS for SQL Server instances to a domain, and manage access to AWS Enterprise IT applications, such as Amazon WorkSpaces, with Microsoft Active Directory users and groups.