We are "cloud-sourcing" all our services (web, databases, file storage, e-mail, print, DNS).  As authentication is made on the could-provider side, I'm wondering about the pro and cons to keep our Active Directory domain controller.  For info, we are a small organization with about 50 users (50/50 laptop-travelers / destop office based).
Taking a spin off of this question:  in a new direction for 2014.  Taking into account a basic Windows infrastructure:   domain controllers Exchange 2007/2010/2013 Sharepoint SQL File Servers / Print Servers AD Integrated DNS AD authenticated 3rd party devices (let's say 802.1X for networking and maybe some content-filtering, etc.) AD/LDAP authenticated "administrative" functions on IT apps/hardware/etc. perhaps some KMS stuff throw in a CA if you'd like home grown apps 3rd party in-house apps   Now, let's rip it all out and decide we are going to the cloud.  We've contracted to move Exchange/Sharepoint/File Services to Office 365.  SQL will now be hosted as well on  something like Azure.  We've gotten away from the need for AD-DNS and simply run everything via a simple Windows DNS server.  We still need 802.1X and would like SSO if possible to our various cloud apps.  Home grown and 3rd party in-house apps would likely stay, but have the ability to use internal user databases instead of AD authentication  The question is...do we really need Active Directory at all?  Or more to the point, AD on-premise or even hosted via Azure or similar (ADFS) or running ADDS on a hosted VM through Azure or similar.  Could/Should we look to something else like a 3rd party SSO option such as  or similar that can provide SSO functionality even if it is as simple as LastPass or similar for each user?  What kind of legitimate needs does AD fulfill if everything else in the cloud?  Could a MS-centric infrastructure get away with not having AD at all if they move everything that previously relied on AD to SaaS offerings that didn't rely on AD authentication?
PhD without previous academic degree: truth or myth? Faster language/keyboard swapping I like making a habit to use the different languages I study, to keep that knowledge fresh. So I like typing in those languages when I get the chance. But swapping keyboards under OSX is just a little too cumbersome.  For example, I was just typing the name of one of my co-workers in its original 汉子 form instead of as an English transliteration. It's nice. It reminds me to pronounce her name properly, with tone, etc., which otherwise doesn't come naturally. The transliteration of her name is especially misleading. Everyone at the company is pronouncing it wrong.   But to swap into writing 汉子 I have to mouse up to the top menu bar, select a new keyboard, type, mouse back up to the top bar, and then select back into English. I know there's a keyboard shortcut, but with 5 different keyboards active in my menu, cycling through 5 to get to the one I want feels just as cumbersome.  Is there a way to attach a hotkey to a specific keyboard, or some other way to make swapping character sets lighter? How to log source file name and line number in Python Is it possible to restore a MySql database only using files from Data directory? Undefined Control Sequence in \multido or \pspicture? Classical car collision I have a very confusing discussion with a friend of mine.  2 cars ($car_a$ and $car_b$) of the same mass $m$ are on a collision course. Both cars travel at $50_\frac{km}{h}$ towards each other.  They collide. Ignoring any shreds and collateral damage, what is the speed of collision that the driver of $car_a$ felt?  What I mean is, if $car_a$ were to be driven into an infinite mass wall, what would the velocity be to replicate the damage caused by the initial collision? Usage of “when” or “while” in this context He left the house _ I was still sleeping   Would this sentence be better completed with when or with while? So, my friend just implemented a bunch of new mods into his SMP server, which meant a host of new commands to play with.  I thought I'd give the /mobspawn command a few goes, and see what I could achieve.  So I headed off to the server's jail (I forget why this particular location compelled me), and gave it a few spins.    I seem to have made a bit of an error in judgement.     What can I do to get rid of this mess?  Is there a command or some other technique I can use to clear out any mobs in my immediate vicinity? Generated Frattini Lemma Let $A$ be a normal subgroup of a group $G$. Let $B$ be a subgroup of   $A$ with the property that whenever $B_1 \leq A$ is conjugate to $B$   in $G$ then it is conjugate to $B$ in $A$. Prove that $G=AN_G(B)$   Help me some hints. I thought it was by Heinlein or Brown, but if it was I can't locate it online.    The plot was aboard a spaceship, or maybe a space station, when an accident sends the astronauts spinning out of control towards certain doom.  One part of the story I remember distinctly was the one of the guys started screaming inconsolably and the noise was driving everyone crazy.  One of the astronauts made his way over to the guy and smashed his helmet so the screaming stopped.  As I recall, the story ends with the narrator turning off his comm link so he can ponder the beauty of the universe in silence.  Sound familiar to anyone? How to block sites with iptables How to read a csv file and use the values as x and y points in blender? How can i use the value in column 'lon' and 'lat' as the position of my uv_sphere? For example,read the values from line 4, (116.4559081, 39.9139083), and make these 2 numbers as my uv_sphere x and y position in blender? and gives different colors for different mode, for example i have 4 modes in the csv , i want to make the uv sphere that represents the bus mode to be red, and subway to be green , rail to be blue and tram to be yellow., and use the row ['from'] and ['to'] to connect the nodes with a cylinder with x scale 0.5 , y scale 0.5 and the z scale with the value in ['length'] value. Automatically login and lock I want to configure Windows 7 to login automatically after the computer is switched on. That's not because I'm lazy and don't like typing passwords. That's because I want programs that are configured to run on startup run automatically.  But I don't want everyone to see my desktop, so I want my computer to remain locked. When I'm ready to work, I just type my password and don't have to wait until all startup programs run. Why Changing Permissions For Some Systems Files is Not Allowed? Consider this example from the Rogue class traits:     Trained Skills: Stealth and Thievery. From the class skills list below, choose four more trained skills at 1st level.   &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Class Skills: Acrobatics (Dex), Athletics (Str), Bluff (Cha), Dungeoneering (Wis), Insight (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Perception (Wis), Stealth (Dex), Streetwise (Cha), Thievery (Dex)   The Rogue is trained in Stealth and Thievery. However, they're also included in the Class Skills section, and it invites you to: 'choose four more trained skills' from that list. This seems to be similar for all the classes.  So can you train Stealth and Thievery as a choice as well have it initially trained or the equivalent for other classes? I know the new SPFx will be released for Sharepoint 2016 sometime in the year 2017. But are there any plans to also bring this for Sharepoint 2013?  Are there any possibilities/hacks to add a Sharepoint app created with SPFx in the Sharepoint 2013 app catalog? How do I share an ethernet connection via wifi on Windows 8? I have a Windows 8 laptop that is connected to a router via Ethernet. I want to make the laptop act like a wireless router via wifi so that other devices could connect to the computer using wifi and gain access to its Ethernet internet connection.  How do I do something like this? Adding two numbers concatenates them instead of calculating the sum I am trying to take pictures of large rugs. The rug size is about 10mx5m, and I'm  planning to purchase , and Canon 7D Mark II with Canon EF 50MM F/1.2L USM lens, since we need high quality images.  We want to set up a studio to take giga-pixel quality images of the large rugs for museum conservation purposes  Could you please suggest the best way for mounting the camera to the ceiling, and any other recommendations for my camera/lens setup, and required lighting? It will be  an indoor shoot. Just we want to setup a studio to shoot the large rugs. A cardinal $\kappa$ such that $2^{\lambda}<\kappa$ for all $\lambda<\kappa$ is regular? A cardinal $\kappa$ such that $2^{\lambda}&lt;\kappa$ for all $\lambda&lt;\kappa$ is regular?  I would appreciate very much an answer