I have a 2012 R2 domain running in my office. We have an Office 365 E3 subscription currently and Azure AD Services is now available. What I'm wondering is if I can use Azure AD to connect my Windows 10 Mobile users to my local network with Azure as supposed to Direct Access?
1 Answer
If you set things up correctly then yes your Windows 10 devices can join Azure AD or if they can connect to the VNet that hosts Azure AD DS (Perhaps with a point-to-site connection) they can be made members of that Domain and from there they can connect to your corporate network.
Your Mobile computers would have to create a point-to-site connection with the Azure VNet hosting Azure AD DS and from there they would have to access your on premise network. This would involve making sure that routing between your on-premise network and the network hosting Azure ADDS and the point-to-site network is properly configured. you would need a site-to-site link or an Express Route connection between your on-premise network and Azure.
However this is not a replacement for Direct Access.
One of the points of having Direct Access is that it takes the decision making away from your users. If the Windows 10 machine is inside your firewall and can access the NLS then Direct access is not started if the windows 10 machine is outside the firewall and can not see the NLS then direct access will be started. This is one of the big benefits of Direct Access over a VPN connection.
you would effectively be going back to VPN service.
Hopefully Direct Access will be supported soon on Azure, there are some that have configured unsupported solutions so direct access can work but in a limited and less secure way.
https://blog.kloud.com.au/2014/10/28/direct-access-on-azure-why-can-how/
good luck.
answered Jul 5, 2017 at 5:18
