Compliancy Standards Part 0 - Foundations for Building and Managing Enterprise Level Networks; an Introduction to Data and Service Management Roles

Compliancy gets a bad rap. It's a pretty word to spell and pronounce but an ugly word in practice, especially, for those of us that get invited into the board-room by an army of executives and auditors that want objectives for ISO, PCI, SOX, HIPAA, and etc. clearly defined and completed by last week!

If you take a few minutes to focus on the foundation(s) of your network infrastructure and consider some very simple methodologies you'll be in a good position to politely assure everyone in the room that you're light-years ahead of their stated objectives; just in time to join the "boys club" for lunch at Ruth Chris Steakhouse.

Data Management Role(s)
Data management includes managing the content that is stored in Active Directory, as well as content that is protected by Active Directory (ie. OU's, GPO's, Users, Security Groups, Distribution Groups, etc.).

Service Mangagement Role(s)
Service management includes managing all aspects of the directory service that are essential to ensuring the uninterrupted delivery of the directory service across the enterprise (ie. DHCP, DNS, WINS, Exchange, IIS, SQL, Sharepoint, etc.).

The design of your Organizational Unit (OU) structure, the creation and application of Group Policy Objects, and the process supporting Delegation of Authority in your environment are essential steps towards defining, effectively managing, and supporting these basic role definitions. I will address each of these steps in a five part discussion.