Company A Has About 100 Employees Across Three Locations

Company A Has About 100 Employees Spread Over Three Locations In The S

Company A has about 100 employees spread over three locations in the same city, all linked by fast network connections. The IT/IS administration is centralized and includes the helpdesk. Location 1 contains the executive offices, IT/IS, and Marketing and Design departments. Location 2 contains the HR, Sales, and Research departments. Location 3 contains the Manufacturing and Prototyping departments. The HR department has sensitive information that can only be viewed by members of the HR department and executive offices. Each location has computers and printers for use within the individual departments but not to be used by employees from another department. All executives and members of the executive offices are authorized to enter all locations. All other employees only have authority to enter the location they work at.

Paper For Above instruction

Effective management and security of information systems are critical for organizations with multiple geographically dispersed locations. For Company A, which operates with approximately 100 employees across three distinct locations within the same city, establishing a robust Active Directory (AD) domain structure is essential to streamline IT operations, enforce security policies, and facilitate resource sharing while maintaining departmental and positional security boundaries.

Designing the Organizational Units (OUs) and Group Structure

The first step in creating a functional Active Directory environment for Company A involves planning the OU structure, which reflects the company's organizational and operational hierarchy. Given the company's layout, a logical OU structure would include OUs for each major department, with further subdivisions if necessary. The recommended OU hierarchy includes a top-level domain named companya.com, with subordinate OUs for each department: Executive Offices, IT/IS, Marketing & Design, Human Resources, Sales, Research, Manufacturing, and Prototyping. This structure supports delegation of administrative rights, simplifies policy application, and aligns with the company's physical and operational layout.

Implementing the OU Structure

Within companya.com, separate OUs are created for each department:

  • ExecutiveOffices
  • IT_IS
  • Marketing_Design
  • HumanResources
  • Sales
  • Research
  • Manufacturing
  • Prototyping

These OUs can be further subdivided if specific policies or delegation needs arise, such as creating child OUs for sub-departments or regional subdivisions within each department. This hierarchical organization facilitates delegation, allows specific Group Policies (GPOs) to be applied selectively, and simplifies management.

Creating Security Groups and Permissions

For access control, the creation of Global Groups for each department is recommended. These groups will contain all users belonging to that department and will serve as the basis for permissions assignment. For example, a Global Group named HR_Global will include all HR employees, while Marketing_Global will include members of the Marketing department, and so forth. Additionally, to enforce security on sensitive information, such as HR data, Domain Local Groups can be created at the resource level—either within the OU or on specific servers or shares—such as HR_Security, with membership restricted to HR and executive global groups.

Resource Access and Printer Permissions

Printers and other shared resources should be assigned to Domain Local Groups, which are granted permissions to access the resource. For instance, a printer located near the HR department would be associated with the HR_Security domain local group, with HR_Global and Executive_Global groups added as members to ensure authorized access. This nesting of groups allows flexibility; if access permissions need to change, administrators can modify group membership without altering the resource permissions directly. By assigning permissions at the group level rather than on individual accounts, the organization simplifies management and enhances security.

Access Control Based on Employee Roles

Reinforcing the security model, access privileges should be role-based. All executives and members of the executive offices should have permissions to access all locations and resources. General employees should only have permissions restricted to their assigned location and department. These permissions can be enforced through scoped group memberships linked to security policies, OU permissions, and resource permissions, ensuring sensitive data such as HR records remain accessible only to authorized personnel.

Implementing Security Policies and Delegation

Using Group Policy Objects, the administrator can enforce security policies across departments, such as password complexity requirements, login restrictions, and auditing policies. Delegation of administrative rights can be performed at the OU level, granting each department or location control over user account management within their scope. This decentralization fosters operational efficiency while maintaining central oversight.

Conclusion

Designing an AD domain structure for Company A involves a careful balance of security, manageability, and operational efficiency. An OU hierarchy that mirrors the organizational structure facilitates delegation and policy enforcement. Group strategies that utilize global and domain local groups provide flexible resource access control aligned with the company's security requirements. Ultimately, a well-structured AD environment ensures secure, efficient, and scalable management of the company's IT resources across all locations.

References

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