Hi everyone! I've been reading up on JumpCloud as a possible all-in-one solution for our small team. We're currently using a mix of Google Workspace for some things and a bunch of standalone apps, and the idea of one platform to manage users, devices, and apps sounds amazing.
But I'm a bit confused by something. I keep seeing that JumpCloud has a "Cloud Directory" and that it can replace things like Microsoft Active Directory or OpenLDAP. In all the articles I've read, those traditional directories are built on LDAP. But then I also see notes that JumpCloud's directory isn't *really* LDAP at the core.
Can someone explain this like I'm five? If it's not LDAP at its heart, how does the "Directory" part actually work? How can it control user access to systems (like servers or NAS devices) that *do* speak traditional LDAP, if it's different underneath?
I think I'm missing a key piece of the puzzle. Is it like a translator? Does it just *speak* LDAP to the outside world but store everything in a different way? I'd love a simple breakdown of the magic behind it. Thanks in advance! 😊
That's a good question. I was confused about this too. From what I understand, you're right about the translator part.
It stores user info in a cloud database, not an LDAP tree. But it can act like an LDAP server when something, like a NAS, needs to talk to one. So it's presenting an LDAP face to those old systems, but the core directory is doing a lot more modern stuff behind the scenes.
My question is, does this translation layer ever cause a delay? Like, if I change a user's password in JumpCloud, is there a wait before the LDAP-connected device sees the update?