In order to be able to analyze the risks and threats for our Active Directory (AD), we need to first understand what we are actually protecting. Active Directory is not exactly a physical entity that we are protecting. We are protecting the content and its function or service. The following things are the main points of an AD, that need protection and safe-keeping:
The ability of a user to log on to the domain and access resources located in your network.
The information for authentication and authorization, such as user names, passwords, and group memberships.
Personal information within the AD.
The ability of network-based services to start, authenticate, and function properly.
Group policy application to the workstation, which may contain specific security settings.
A crucial step (the actual basis for proceeding forward), is to analyze the cost involved in an outage of a part of your AD backbone.
This is should be outlined in your Business...