Well, Episode 3 definitely gave us something to argue about! 😄 And yes, I’m a little late announcing the winners — August was a pretty hectic month for me!
Thank you to everyone who jumped into the latest Veeam Oxford Style Debate. We had strong opinions, great technical arguments, and plenty of real-world experience from both sides — exactly what I was hoping for when we started this series.
This episode statement was:
“Joining your Veeam backup infrastructure (VBR server, proxies, repositories, Enterprise Manager, etc.) to Active Directory is a security mistake.”
This was
And his verdict? Well, even he admitted this one wasn’t easy:
“This thread contains so many great insights and valid points, I genuinely struggled to pick a clear winner for each side! The initial statement is (intentionally) quite strong, and I'll be the first to admit that the ‘correct’ answer might be a bit more complex / nuanced than a flat ‘FOR/AGAINST’. Thanks to all participants!”
So, without further ado…
WINNER – FOR:
His post is very detailed and compelling, even mentioning specific vulnerabilities. Plus he does not dismiss the argument of having a separate AD forest, but rather calls out important design considerations and takes into account cases where AD (even if implemented in the best possible way) simply is not available.
WINNER – AGAINST:
He hits the nail on the head (IMHO) when he writes that AD itself is not the liability... poor security posture is. He then proceeds to list some AD-exclusive security features and shares a real-world example, wrapping up his post suggesting solutions and tools that can complement AD, to improve security and make administration easier.
Congratulations to both of you! 👏
And a big thank you to everyone who took the time to share an opinion, challenge someone else’s argument, or bring a real-world example into the discussion. That’s what makes these debates so much fun.
Now… what should we argue about next? 😎

