Can Azure Active Directory replace on-premises Active Directory?

Question

Could someone tell me whether Azure Active Directory replace on-premises Active Directory?

Answer 1

No, Azure Active Directory cannot replace on-premises Active Directory (AD). There are several issues with that and even though both perform some similar tasks but are different from each other. Active Directory is a database that contains all the data, regarding the company’s users, computers and offer authentication, authorization to all the files, applications, printers, and other resources in your on-premises setup.

Whereas, Azure Active Directory or Azure AD, offers you a secure online authentication store for containing users and groups. It also manages access to applications that work with modern authentication mechanisms like SAML, OAuth, etc. And you could connect very easily with many Microsoft Online Services, and numerous SaaS applications just using a single sign-on.

Conclusion: Active Directory or AD works best in on-premises setup, whereas Azure AD works best in a cloud environment. If you wish to get started with Microsoft Azure, check out the Azure training course from Intellipaat. Watch the following video on Azure Certifications 2021: Microsoft Azure Certification Preparation and Real-World Roles and get started.