What is our primary use case?
One Identity Active Roles serves as the primary tool in our organization to streamline and secure Active Directory management by automating administrative tasks, enforcing governance policies, and reducing the risk of human error. It helps us delegate access control efficiently through role-based administration, ensuring that the right users have the appropriate permissions without granting excessive privilege. Additionally, it enhances compliance by providing detailed auditing, reporting, and approval workflows for changes made within the directory, which is especially important for maintaining security standards and regulatory requirements. Overall, it improves operational efficiency, strengthens our security posture, and simplifies identity and access management across the organization.
A practical example from our daily use of One Identity Active Roles is our automated user provisioning process, where it is configured with policies and workflows that trigger as soon as a new employee is added to our HR systems or Active Directory. The system automatically assigns the correct group membership, email access, and permissions based on their roles and department, while also enforcing naming conventions and security rules simultaneously. Privileged access requests, such as adding a user to admin groups, go through an approval workflow that requires managerial authorization and is fully logged for auditing. This approach not only saves significant manual effort for the IT team but also ensures strict governance, consistency, and compliance without relying on individual administrators to remember every policy.
Our main day-to-day use of One Identity Active Roles revolves around simplifying and controlling Active Directory operations through delegated administration and policy-based management. We allow helpdesks or junior IT staff to handle routine tasks such as user creation, password resets, and group modifications without giving them full domain access, ensuring security is never compromised. Simultaneously, we rely heavily on its built-in workflows and approval mechanisms for sensitive changes, such as privilege escalation or access to critical systems, which ensures every action follows a defined governance process and is properly audited. Its automation capabilities help maintain consistency in user attributes, enforce compliance policies, and reduce manual errors, making it an essential tool that keeps our identity management efficient, secure, and aligned with organizational standards on a daily basis.
The workflow automation and auditing features of One Identity Active Roles have made a clear impact in our daily work, especially in handling access requests and compliance tracking. When a user needs elevated privileges, the request automatically goes through a predefined approval workflow instead of relying on manual emails, ensuring proper authorization before any changes are made and every action is logged with full details. This becomes extremely useful during audits or troubleshooting because we can quickly track who made what changes and when, reducing investigation time and improving accountability. This approach also removes the dependency on manual follow-ups and minimizes the risk of unauthorized access.
What is most valuable?
One of the best features of One Identity Active Roles is its strong combination of automation, security, and centralized control, which makes Active Directory management much more efficient and governed. A standout feature is workflow automation, where repetitive tasks such as user provisioning, deprovisioning, and access changes are handled automatically based on predefined rules, saving time and reducing manual errors significantly. Another key feature is role-based delegation, which allows organizations to grant limited control access to helpdesks or junior staff without exposing critical admin privileges, ensuring a least privilege security model. One Identity Active Roles also offers policy-based management where rules enforce naming conventions, mandatory attributes, and compliance standards during any Active Directory changes, maintaining consistency across the environment. Additionally, features such as dynamic groups, memberships, and temporal access automatically add or remove users from groups based on coordination or time, which is very useful for managing temporary or role-based access. Finally, its auditing and reporting capabilities provide full visibility into who made what changes and when, helping with compliance, troubleshooting, and security monitoring. Overall, these features together make One Identity Active Roles a powerful tool for improving efficiency, strengthening governance, and securely managing identity and access management operations.
What needs improvement?
One area where One Identity Active Roles can be improved is in simplifying its initial setup and configuration process, as deployment can be complex and time-consuming for a new user or organization without deep Active Directory expertise, which can slow down adoption and require additional training or support. Additionally, improving the user interface to make it more intuitive and user-friendly would enhance the overall experience for administration, especially for those who are not highly technical. There is also scope to enhance performance in certain scenarios such as reporting over slower networks. Expanding flexibility in customization and integrations could further strengthen its usability in modern hybrid and cloud environments, making it even more efficient and easier to manage at scale.
One improvement I would particularly highlight for One Identity Active Roles is the need for seamless integration with modern cloud platforms and hybrid environments. Many organizations now operate beyond traditional on-premises Active Directory, and having more out-of-the-box connection connectors and easier configuration for tools such as Azure or other SaaS applications would save time and effort. Making reporting and dashboards more customizable and intuitive would help administration quickly derive insights without relying on external tools. Improving documentation and in-product guidance could also make troubleshooting and advanced configuration much easier, especially for new users who are still becoming familiar with the platform.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using One Identity Active Roles for the last two years.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
One Identity Active Roles is generally considered a stable and reliable solution in most enterprise environments, as many users rate its stability quite high, often between seven to ten out of ten. They highlight that it performs consistently well for automation, delegation, and auditing tasks.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
One Identity Active Roles is highly scalable and can easily support large enterprise environments with thousands to even hundreds of thousands of users across multiple domains. It grows well with our organization's needs without major performance issues, making it suitable for both mid-sized and large companies.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support for One Identity Active Roles is generally good, as most users report that the support team is responsive, technically knowledgeable, and ready to assist whenever tickets are raised, often providing clear and practical solutions to issues. Although in some cases there are slight delays or slower responses for more complex problems, the overall support experience is positive and reliable, though there is room for improvement in response time for critical or advanced issues.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before adopting One Identity Active Roles, we were primarily relying on native Microsoft Active Directory tools and manual PowerShell scripts for user and access management. We switched because those methods lacked centralized governance, automation, and proper auditing capabilities, which made the process time-consuming and prone to errors. As our environment grew, managing permissions and ensuring compliance became increasingly complex, so moving to One Identity Active Roles helped us streamline operations with automation, enforce consistent policies, and gain better visibility and control over all directory-related activities.
How was the initial setup?
Integrating One Identity Active Roles with our existing IT infrastructure and Active Directory is moderately straightforward but not entirely simple. It fits well within our traditional Active Directory environment and connects effectively with directory services. However, the initial setup, configuration of policies, and aligning it with existing workflows require careful planning and some expertise, especially when customizing roles and permissions. While basic integration is smooth, more advanced setups such as hybrid environments or additional system integrations can add complexity. Overall, it is manageable but does require a certain level of technical understanding to fully optimize its capabilities.
What was our ROI?
We have seen a clear return on investment with One Identity Active Roles, as it has reduced manual administration effort by approximately fifty to sixty percent, which directly translates into time savings for the IT team. In some cases, tasks that earlier took fifteen to twenty minutes, such as user provisioning or access changes, are now completed in just a few minutes through automation, while also reducing errors significantly, which avoids network and potential security risks. Overall, it has allowed us to handle the same workload with fewer resources or relocate team members to more strategic tasks, ultimately improving our productivity and delivering strong value compared to the investment made.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Our experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for One Identity Active Roles has been generally positive, though with a few considerations as the solution follows a subscription-based licensing model, typically calculated based on the number of managed users and required features, which makes it scalable but can become relatively expensive for larger organizations and environments. The initial setup and procurement process was smooth with good vendor support, but the overall cost is on the higher side compared to basic tools, though it is justified by the value it delivers in automation, governance, and time savings. In our case, we found that the return on investment was strong because it significantly reduced manual efforts and administrative workload, making the pricing work despite the higher upfront and licensing costs.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before selecting One Identity Active Roles, we evaluated a few other identity and Active Directory management solutions such as Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, and ManageEngine ADManager Plus, as they are commonly considered strong alternatives in the identity and access management space with capabilities such as automation, access control, and governance. While each had its strengths, especially in cloud integration or ease of use, we ultimately chose One Identity Active Roles because it offered more granular control, deeper Active Directory management, and stronger policy-based governance tailored to our on-premises and hybrid environment needs.
What other advice do I have?
My advice for anyone considering One Identity Active Roles would be to invest time in proper planning and initial setup, especially around role design, delegation models, and policy configuration, because the real value of the tool comes from how well these are structured from the beginning. Also, ensure your team has a good understanding of Active Directory. I would rate this product a nine out of ten overall.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.