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Can I run an on-premise domain with only Azure AD?

ky flag

I am looking to upgrade some of the systems for my church and wanted to run some questions. We currently are running on an antiquated version of Windows Server 2008 R2. This server has AD, DNS, users, PCs, etc. As we make upgrades I am curious to know if I can run the domain completely out of the Microsoft cloud. So, can I have AD running purely from Azure and then users with O365 subscriptions that are users but login via their on-premise PCs? Or can I run even without Azure AD in the equation? If I dont need Azure AD, how do I manage users, Computers? etc. What are my options here?

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br flag

The short answer: yes, you can use Azure AD with O365 and remove your local Active directory.

The long answer: it depends, there are some features in a local Active Directory that are not available natively in Azure AD yet, I won't go list them since they're well documented here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/fundamentals/active-directory-compare-azure-ad-to-ad

You'll need to list down the features you're using an a local Active Directory and determine if you need them or not, and if Azure AD can run those features or have other alternatives, only then you'll be able to tell if you can move your users to be a pure cloud only environment or not.

Also, this question was asked many, many times before. I'm sure you'll find a lot of guidance/documentation on how to move forward if you decide to move to cloud only setup if you search for it.

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