The cloud connector connects the Centrify Cloud Service to on premise Directory Services and networks. Without the cloud connector, the solution will not be able to authenticate users or provide access to on premise servers or applications.
The best practice is to have multiple connectors online for high availability. For example, we at Centrify have offices in Seattle and Santa Clara, therefore we have cloud connectors deployed in both locations. If Santa Clara goes down for some reason, I in NY will not be impacted since I will authenticate against a connector in Seattle.
This architecture provides us an imense amount of flexibility and allows us to support the largest of environments without having to sync the credentials of AD or an LDAP directory to a cloud directory.
Regards,