Picture of Brian Desmond

Brian Desmond

Brian is a principal at Ravenswood Technology Group where he leads a team of professionals focused on delivering best-in-breed consulting services for the Microsoft security and identity management ecosystem. Brian has been recognized annually as a Microsoft MVP since 2003 and is the author of the fourth and fifth editions of Active Directory from O'Reilly.

[ARTICLE] Active Directory Replication In Depth In this article for ITProToday, Brain Desmond from Ravenswood Technology Group  helps you gain a deeper understanding of exactly how AD replication works. Learn [...]

[BOOK] Active Directory, 5th Edition Organize your network resources by learning how to design, manage, and maintain Active Directory. Updated to cover Windows Server 2012, the fifth edition of this [...]

[WEBINAR] 10 Quick Hybrid Identity Wins In this recorded session for TEC (The Experts Conference by Quest), Brian Desmond from Ravenswood Technology Group discusses the benefits and advantages of Hybrid [...]

[ARTICLE] Delegating Privileges in Active Directory One of the key benefits of Active Directory (AD) is the ability to delegate privileges on an extremely granular level to other users in [...]

[PODCAST] Protecting Active Directory from Attacks: Identity Processes, Trust Settings, and More What should you tackle first in locking down Active Directory from cyberattacks? In this podcast, Sean Deuby from [...]

Strong identity management practices are critical if you want to be able to adequately secure your Microsoft Azure subscriptions. For most organizations, the foundation begins with your on-premises Active Directory [...]

Ensuring that your user identities are protected from modern attack vectors such as phishing schemes and credential leaks should be a critical part of your enterprise security strategy. When attackers [...]

Passwords are an insecure authentication mechanism. They are often easily guessed, and the computing power necessary to crack passwords is readily available. Although many organizations have the goal of switching to an entirely password-less authentication system, most companies cannot do [...]

Our automated AD DS health check process looks at hundreds of configuration settings, including DNS, FSMO roles, replication, sites and subnets, Group Policy, performance indicators, backup procedures, security settings, patching, [...]
Forgotten passwords are a key driver of Help desk calls for many organizations. They are also a major cost factor. Azure Active Directory (AD) Premium includes a Self-Service Password Reset [...]