Amazon Web Services, one of the three big players in public cloud, has launched a directory service that will likely compete with Microsoft’s Azure Active Directory service.
Writing on a blog post announcing the release, Amazon said: "AWS Directory Service is a managed service that allows you to connect your AWS resources with an existing on-premises Microsoft Active Directory or to set up a new, stand-alone directory in the AWS Cloud.
"Connecting to an on-premises directory is easy and once this connection is established, all users can access AWS resources and applications with their existing corporate credentials. You can also launch managed, Samba-based directories in a matter of minutes, simplifying the deployment and management of Windows workloads in the AWS Cloud."
With the move, Amazon will hope to play a more central role in the CIO’s enterprise IT vision, and is the latest addition to Amazon’s infrastructure armoury.
AWS said that users can create two different types of directories with Directory Service. AD Connector connects with an exisiting Microsoft Active Directory, with Simple AD being a stand-alone managed directory powered by Samba 4 Active Directory Compatible Server.
