Over the past many months, a number of on-premise Microsoft products have seen sync tools released that help mirror internal network information with Windows Azure. In doing so, this allows companies to take advantage of Windows Azure services, where it makes sense, and provide a stable bridge between the private and public Cloud.
In a small way, the sync tools are a first step from Microsoft to provide the ultimate Hybrid Cloud scenario. When corporate accounts exist in both locations, it makes it much easier for a company to slide data back and forth, and provide data and personnel resiliency.
Just released is another sync tool, this time for Forefront Identity Manager (FIM). FIM is an identity management product from Microsoft that manages users' digital identities and credentials in the Enterprise. FIM integrates with Exchange Server and Active Directory to provide things like secure user provisioning (including self-service password resets), certificate management and identity synchronization.
The release of the new sync tool creates the conduit between local Active Directory objects and those contained in Windows Azure Active Directory, effectively replicating functionality to the Cloud.
The new tool is available for download from here: Forefront Identity Manager Connector for Windows Azure Active Directory
