Complete Trust Model

Enterprise customers should avoid the complete trust model because it is a compromise. On the plus side, it can accommodate decentralized administration and support models, and it does establish user accounts within the domain that holds most of the resources that users need. On the down side, it is difficult to manage, doesn't scale well, and can adversely affect performance. The complete trust model entails a larger number of trust relationships than the other models, since each domain may need trust relationships in both directions with every other domain. Therefore, the number of trust relationships grows with the square of the number of domains. For example, five domains require 20 trust relationships, while ten domains require 90. It is therefore best for small networks with a limited number of servers. The table in Figure 6 summarizes Microsoft's recommendations for which domain model is best suited to certain organizational characteristics: