SharePoint 2010 People Search without User Profile Service

Question

I have a requirement where I need to enable people search in "My Sites" page from AD without the help of user profile service. Because we have a restriction at client/customer side to use User Profile Service.

Is there any best way to synchronize the user profile from AD without using User Profile Service? And also, we need to achieve this out-of-the-box, it means no code solution. Is there anyway to set up people search to index MySites?

Kindly let me know if my requirement/question is not clear. I will throw some more details.

Answer 1

Everything you describe here is EXACTLY what the User Profile Service is built for. Can you explain that to your client? Tell them that you can use the User Profile Service and be done in a couple hours or spend days, weeks, months working around it and they will never be happy, finally returning to the User Profile Service. Sometimes it is your responsibility to explain how SharePoint works and counsel the client on a best approach.