If you're an IT admin, DevOps engineer, or developer, you've likely felt the pain of managing multiple directory services. Active Directory for on-premise resources, Azure AD for cloud, Okta for SSO, and maybe a legacy LDAP server for a critical application. Each system has its own schema, its own API, and its own quirks. This fragmentation isn't just inefficient—it's a breeding ground for synchronization errors that create security gaps and operational nightmares.
From attribute mismatches that break applications to delayed de-provisioning that leaves sensitive data exposed, these sync fails are more than just a headache. They represent significant business risk.
But what if you could manage them all from one place? Let's break down the seven most common directory synchronization fails and explore how a unified, API-driven approach can solve them for good.
The Fail: Your Active Directory uses sAMAccountName, while your cloud app uses email as the primary identifier. The displayName in one system doesn't match the name attribute in another. This attribute chaos is a classic symptom of siloed directories.
The Consequence: User profiles break, single sign-on (SSO) attempts fail, and applications don't receive the data they need to function correctly. The result is a flood of helpdesk tickets and frustrated users.
The Fix: Implement an abstraction layer that can map and transform attributes between disparate systems. Instead of writing complex logic for each connection, a unified platform can handle the translation automatically. You define a single canonical user model, and the platform ensures attributes are correctly mapped to every connected directory, every time.
The Fail: An employee leaves the company. The HR system is updated, but the manual process to remove their access from all downstream systems is slow. Their account remains active in a key application or group for hours, days, or even weeks.
The Consequence: This is a massive security vulnerability. These "ghost" accounts are prime targets for attackers and can lead to serious data breaches and compliance violations (SOX, GDPR, HIPAA).
The Fix: Automate the entire identity lifecycle. De-provisioning shouldn't be a manual checklist. With a universal API, a single event—like a status change in your HR system—can trigger an automated workflow that instantly and simultaneously revokes access across every single connected directory and application.
The Fail: Where does user data originate? Is the HR platform the "source of truth"? Or is it Active Directory? When a user's department changes, an admin updates it in one system, but the change doesn't propagate to others, leading to conflicting data.
The Consequence: Data integrity is compromised, leading to incorrect permissions, outdated contact information, and endless confusion for administrators trying to troubleshoot access issues.
The Fix: Establish a definitive "source of truth" and use automated, agentic workflows to synchronize changes from that source to all other directories. A unified identity platform can orchestrate this flow, ensuring that an update in one place is reliably reflected everywhere else.
The Fail: You add a new developer to the Engineers group in Active Directory, but someone forgets to add them to the corresponding engineering-team in Okta and the developers group in Google Workspace.
The Consequence: Access control becomes a chaotic mess. The developer can't access the tools they need to do their job, creating productivity bottlenecks. Worse, users might retain access to sensitive groups they should have been removed from.
The Fix: Manage logical groups, not individual directory groups. A unified API allows you to perform a single action, like "add user to the Engineers group," which then automatically propagates that membership change to the correctly named group in every underlying service.
The Fail: Your team has a library of PowerShell and Python scripts painstakingly written to sync users and groups. These scripts are fragile, have minimal error handling, require deep "tribal knowledge" to maintain, and break the moment a source or destination API changes.
The Consequence: Maintenance becomes a full-time job. What was meant to be "automation" turns into a constant cycle of debugging and patching, taking your team away from more valuable work.
The Fix: Replace fragile scripts with a managed, declarative platform that treats identity as Business-as-Code. Use a robust SDK to perform complex operations with simple, readable commands. This makes your identity logic version-controllable, testable, and far easier to maintain.
Imagine replacing a 200-line PowerShell script with this:
import { directories } from 'sdk.do';
// Create a new user in your primary directory
const newUser = await directories.users.create({
firstName: 'Jane',
lastName: 'Doe',
email: 'jane.doe@example.com',
groups: ['engineers', 'product-team'],
attributes: {
employeeId: 'E12345',
costCenter: 'CC-987'
}
});
console.log(newUser);
// { id: 'usr_abc123...', status: 'provisioned' }
The Fail: A user updates their password for their on-premise account, but the sync to their cloud identity fails. Or, they simply have different passwords for different systems, leading to constant lockouts.
The Consequence: User frustration skyrockets, and the IT helpdesk is buried under a mountain of "password reset" tickets. Security also suffers as users resort to writing down passwords or using simple, repetitive ones.
The Fix: A unified API can centralize and simplify password management. Programmatically trigger password resets across all connected directories through a single, secure API call, ensuring consistency and reducing the burden on your support team.
The Fail: A security auditor asks, "Who granted John Smith access to the finance database, and when?" You have to piece together logs from Active Directory, your database server, and your SSO provider. There is no single, coherent audit trail.
The Consequence: Compliance becomes a nightmare. It's nearly impossible to conduct effective security investigations or prove that access controls are being properly enforced.
The Fix: Channel every identity operation through a central platform that provides a unified audit trail. Every user creation, group membership change, or de-provisioning event—regardless of the target directory—is logged in one place, giving you complete visibility and control.
The common thread through all these failures is complexity born from fragmentation. The solution is to eliminate that fragmentation with a single, universal API for all your identity needs.
That's precisely why we built directories.do.
We turn complex identity operations into simple, automated workflows. By providing a UNIFIED IDENTITY API on top of all your existing services—from Active Directory and LDAP to Okta and Google Workspace—we solve these synchronization challenges at their core.
What directory services does directories.do support?
Our platform is designed for universal compatibility. It can connect to any standard directory service, including Microsoft Active Directory, Azure AD, LDAP, Okta, Google Workspace, and more, providing a unified API layer on top.
How does directories.do handle security and credentials?
Security is paramount. directories.do securely stores encrypted credentials and uses them to execute agentic workflows on your behalf. All API traffic is encrypted, and access is controlled via API keys, ensuring your identity infrastructure remains protected.
Can I perform complex operations like managing group-based permissions?
Yes. The directories.do API abstracts away the complexity of underlying services. You can easily add or remove users from groups, manage group memberships, and implement role-based access control (RBAC) with simple API calls.
Is this just for user provisioning?
No, directories.do covers the full identity lifecycle. Beyond provisioning, you can automate de-provisioning, access reviews, attribute updates, and password resets, all through our Business-as-Code platform.
Ready to stop fighting directory synchronization and reimagine your user management?