Statistics on the popularity of Workgroups vs. Active Directory

Hi All,

I am looking for statistics on the use of Workgroups vs.
Active Directory.

The licensing model for our product depends upon whether
the client is a member of an Active Directory Domain.
Supporting Workgroups may be problematic for us in the
future, so we are wondering if there are numbers somewhere
that might help us asses the impact of our decision.

Cheers,
Geoff

Hello GLT101,

Do you like to manage on each machine the same local user accounts and passwords
for shared folder access? Each time on one machine it is changed, for full
access you have to change it on the other also. In a domain you have central
database for managing.

Do you like to manage on each machine the same local settings like background
pictures office settings, registry keys, policies? And if changes must be
done walk form machine to machine to............. In a domain it's a one
time configuration/change.

Etc., etc., etc., etc.................

Best regards

Meinolf Weber
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
no rights.
** Please do NOT email, only reply to Newsgroups
** HELP us help YOU!!! http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm


> Hi All,
>
> I am looking for statistics on the use of Workgroups vs. Active
> Directory.
>
> The licensing model for our product depends upon whether the client is
> a member of an Active Directory Domain. Supporting Workgroups may be
> problematic for us in the future, so we are wondering if there are
> numbers somewhere that might help us asses the impact of our decision.
>
> Cheers,
> Geof

Howdie!

Am 22.03.2010 17:56, schrieb GLT101:
> I am looking for statistics on the use of Workgroups vs.
> Active Directory.
>
> The licensing model for our product depends upon whether
> the client is a member of an Active Directory Domain.
> Supporting Workgroups may be problematic for us in the
> future, so we are wondering if there are numbers somewhere
> that might help us asses the impact of our decision.

I'm not a software dev but it don't see why one would want to tie the
pricing model to a domain model or not. Why not have a per-user pricing
model?

Other than that, every network with more than 15 machines and users
connected would be crazy not to join them to a domain and manage them
centrally. Seriously, wo does that in a workgroup? Since we have SBS and
EBS, even the smallest orgs tend to create domains from as low as 10
users. Manual managemant of user accounts isn't worth the hassle.

Cheers,
Florian

Hi Meinolf,

Thanks for the reply.
I am fully conversant with the advantages of AD over workgroup. I
am not making any choices or recommendations here.
I am just looking for numbers on what is actually USED in the wild.

Cheers,
Geoff

"Meinolf Weber [MVP-DS]" wrote:

> Hello GLT101,
>
> Do you like to manage on each machine the same local user accounts and passwords
> for shared folder access? Each time on one machine it is changed, for full
> access you have to change it on the other also. In a domain you have central
> database for managing.
>
> Do you like to manage on each machine the same local settings like background
> pictures office settings, registry keys, policies? And if changes must be
> done walk form machine to machine to............. In a domain it's a one
> time configuration/change.
>
> Etc., etc., etc., etc.................
>
> Best regards
>
> Meinolf Weber
> Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
> no rights.
> ** Please do NOT email, only reply to Newsgroups
> ** HELP us help YOU!!! http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm
>
>
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I am looking for statistics on the use of Workgroups vs. Active
> > Directory.
> >
> > The licensing model for our product depends upon whether the client is
> > a member of an Active Directory Domain. Supporting Workgroups may be
> > problematic for us in the future, so we are wondering if there are
> > numbers somewhere that might help us asses the impact of our decision.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Geoff
>
>
> .
>

Hi Florian,

It isn't a pricing question actually. It is a techical issue with whether we
want
to bother supporting licenses in a Workgroup environment. So we need to know
what kind of impact that will have if we lock out all those Workgroup users.

I guess we will just have to poll our user base to get the stats.

Cheers,
Geoff

"Florian Frommherz" wrote:

> Howdie!
>
> Am 22.03.2010 17:56, schrieb GLT101:
> > I am looking for statistics on the use of Workgroups vs.
> > Active Directory.
> >
> > The licensing model for our product depends upon whether
> > the client is a member of an Active Directory Domain.
> > Supporting Workgroups may be problematic for us in the
> > future, so we are wondering if there are numbers somewhere
> > that might help us asses the impact of our decision.
>
> I'm not a software dev but it don't see why one would want to tie the
> pricing model to a domain model or not. Why not have a per-user pricing
> model?
>
> Other than that, every network with more than 15 machines and users
> connected would be crazy not to join them to a domain and manage them
> centrally. Seriously, wo does that in a workgroup? Since we have SBS and
> EBS, even the smallest orgs tend to create domains from as low as 10
> users. Manual managemant of user accounts isn't worth the hassle.
>
> Cheers,
> Florian
> .
>

"GLT101" <> wrote in message
news:F976BC0B-6D55-477A-AF76-...
> Thanks for the reply.
> I am fully conversant with the advantages of AD over workgroup. I
> am not making any choices or recommendations here.
> I am just looking for numbers on what is actually USED in the wild.

There are no such stats that I have ever heard of.

It would be impossible to prove any given number as true or not true.
Anyone could just makeup a number.

--
Phillip Windell

The views expressed, are my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft,
or anyone else associated with me, including my cats.
-----------------------------------------------------

"GLT101" <> wrote in message news:F976BC0B-6D55-477A-AF76-...
> Hi Meinolf,
>
> Thanks for the reply.
> I am fully conversant with the advantages of AD over workgroup. I
> am not making any choices or recommendations here.
> I am just looking for numbers on what is actually USED in the wild.
>
> Cheers,
> Geoff


I also don't believe there are any stats, either. I think if someone were to be using workgroups, they either are not aware of the advantage, don't realize the advantage and possibly don't peruse or contribute to any newsgroups, nor is there a poll that asks.

--
Ace

This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights.

Please reply back to the newsgroup or forum for collaboration benefit among responding engineers, and to help others benefit from your resolution.

Ace Fekay, MVP, MCT, MCITP EA, MCTS Windows 2008 & Exchange 2007, MCSE & MCSA 2003/2000, MCSA Messaging 2003
Microsoft Certified Trainer
Microsoft MVP - Directory Services

If you feel this is an urgent issue and require immediate assistance, please contact Microsoft PSS directly. Please check http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.

"GLT101" <> wrote in message news:E70F3AD8-5ACF-4E87-9F6C-...
> Hi Florian,
>
> It isn't a pricing question actually. It is a techical issue with whether we
> want
> to bother supporting licenses in a Workgroup environment. So we need to know
> what kind of impact that will have if we lock out all those Workgroup users.
>
> I guess we will just have to poll our user base to get the stats.
>
> Cheers,
> Geoff

Geoff,

I'm not sure what you mean by locking out all those Workgroup users? You mean apply centralized security policies to lock down the machines?



--
Ace

This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights.

Please reply back to the newsgroup or forum for collaboration benefit among responding engineers, and to help others benefit from your resolution.

Ace Fekay, MVP, MCT, MCITP EA, MCTS Windows 2008 & Exchange 2007, MCSE & MCSA 2003/2000, MCSA Messaging 2003
Microsoft Certified Trainer
Microsoft MVP - Directory Services

If you feel this is an urgent issue and require immediate assistance, please contact Microsoft PSS directly. Please check http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.

Hi Ace,

I am referring to what would happen if we decided not to offer our product
to those who have workgroup based networks. It is a business decision we
need to make. I would like to base that on some sensible information
concerning
use of Workgroups vs. Domains..

Cheers,
Geoff

"Ace Fekay [MVP-DS, MCT]" wrote:

> "GLT101" <> wrote in message news:E70F3AD8-5ACF-4E87-9F6C-...
> > Hi Florian,
> >
> > It isn't a pricing question actually. It is a techical issue with whether we
> > want
> > to bother supporting licenses in a Workgroup environment. So we need to know
> > what kind of impact that will have if we lock out all those Workgroup users.
> >
> > I guess we will just have to poll our user base to get the stats.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Geoff
>
> Geoff,
>
> I'm not sure what you mean by locking out all those Workgroup users? You mean apply centralized security policies to lock down the machines?
>
>
>
> --
> Ace
>
> This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights.
>
> Please reply back to the newsgroup or forum for collaboration benefit among responding engineers, and to help others benefit from your resolution.
>
> Ace Fekay, MVP, MCT, MCITP EA, MCTS Windows 2008 & Exchange 2007, MCSE & MCSA 2003/2000, MCSA Messaging 2003
> Microsoft Certified Trainer
> Microsoft MVP - Directory Services
>
> If you feel this is an urgent issue and require immediate assistance, please contact Microsoft PSS directly. Please check http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.
> .
>

The answer may be already in your hands. If your clients have more than 15
computers that there's a 90% chance that they use a domain model. If they
have more computers and you know they have at least 1 windows server the
chances are 99%.
But if you sell software to small companies (less than 10 PCs) then it's
very likely that they don't have a domain model implemented.

Just my opinion,
Andrei Ungureanu
www.winadmins.net

"GLT101" <> wrote in message
news:F42BF9CE-F350-4E5F-BC06-...
> Hi Ace,
>
> I am referring to what would happen if we decided not to offer our product
> to those who have workgroup based networks. It is a business decision we
> need to make. I would like to base that on some sensible information
> concerning
> use of Workgroups vs. Domains..
>
> Cheers,
> Geoff
>
> "Ace Fekay [MVP-DS, MCT]" wrote:
>
>> "GLT101" <> wrote in message
>> news:E70F3AD8-5ACF-4E87-9F6C-...
>> > Hi Florian,
>> >
>> > It isn't a pricing question actually. It is a techical issue with
>> > whether we
>> > want
>> > to bother supporting licenses in a Workgroup environment. So we need to
>> > know
>> > what kind of impact that will have if we lock out all those Workgroup
>> > users.
>> >
>> > I guess we will just have to poll our user base to get the stats.
>> >
>> > Cheers,
>> > Geoff
>>
>> Geoff,
>>
>> I'm not sure what you mean by locking out all those Workgroup users? You
>> mean apply centralized security policies to lock down the machines?
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Ace
>>
>> This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and
>> confers no rights.
>>
>> Please reply back to the newsgroup or forum for collaboration benefit
>> among responding engineers, and to help others benefit from your
>> resolution.
>>
>> Ace Fekay, MVP, MCT, MCITP EA, MCTS Windows 2008 & Exchange 2007, MCSE &
>> MCSA 2003/2000, MCSA Messaging 2003
>> Microsoft Certified Trainer
>> Microsoft MVP - Directory Services
>>
>> If you feel this is an urgent issue and require immediate assistance,
>> please contact Microsoft PSS directly. Please check
>> http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.
>> .
>>