Phone: (408) 447-5232
E-mail: sanjeev_chandrashekhar@hp.com
Phone: (408) 447 0879
E-mail: patricia_mchugh@hp.com
Abstract
The extraordinary growth in the adaptation of Internet technologies into Enterprise IT infrastructure has considerably increased the role of directory services. Directory is no longer a point solution for address look-up, rather it is an enabler of powerful set of new computing and networking services. Among the leading alternative directory implementations, Light Weight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) compliant directories are emerging as the de-facto standard. The leading network and computer vendors are integrating LDAP directory services with their core network and operating systems services.
Enterprise Directory Services
A "network directory" is a repository of information about users, applications and other computing and networking resources. Some of the main tasks that are supported in a directory service implementation include storing, organizing and managing information that helps its users locate any computing and networking resource on the network.
The explosion of internet technology has considerably increased the importance of directory services. Directory is no longer a point solution for address look-up, but has become one of the enablers of various distributed computing and network services. Some of the important directory enabled network applications include:
To support such a diverse array of applications in a business critical or mission critical environment, an enterprise directory service should have the following attributes:
Enterprise Directory Alternatives
Today, there are three main categories of directory implementations in the marketplace. They include directories based on X.500, LDAP, and proprietary protocols. Because of its many advantages, LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) has emerged as the de-facto Internet standard for directory access. Directory implementations based on LDAP are becoming a key infrastructure component and are currently available on platforms from leading computer vendors such as HP, Sun and IBM. X.500 based directories are rather complex, expensive and gradually losing their appeal as general-purpose directories. According to a 1997 Gartner report, new installations of X.500 based directories will decrease rapidly over the next five years as LDAP gains significant momentum. Directories based on proprietary protocols, such as NDS from Novell and StreetTalk from Banyan are also losing market share to more open LDAP compliant implementations. The following table summarizes the relative advantages of LDAP over X.500 based directories.
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LDAP-Compliant Directory Services |
X.500-Compliant Directory Services |
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Table 1: LDAP vs. X.500 Comparison
Key Customers Benefits of an Enterprise Directory
Some of the key customer segments that are developing directory enabled network applications include Service Providers, ISVs, and Corporate IT departments. These customers are exploiting the emergence of the internet as an important tool to offer their products and services to their customers. They are doing so by using the rich set of functions provided by LDAP based enterprise directory services. In this section, we will talk about some of the specific benefits offered by LDAP directories to these customer segments.
Service providers (ISPs, Telcos etc) will be able to develop, provision, deploy and manage directory-enabled services more efficiently at much lower cost. More important, they will be able to more elegantly implement better bandwidth management and deliver services with Quality of Service (QoS) guarantee. They will be able to do so by storing and managing a more detailed customer profile information in a high performance LDAP directory.
Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) developing network-enabled applications expect to have a standard directory API (application programming interface) that they can write to and not worry about the details of how the directory service itself is implemented. Standard LDAP API will allow ISVs to develop their applications to use a standard API.
Corporate IT departments will be able to develop and deploy enterprise-wide directory-enabled services—such as secure common authentication independent of location, access method or platform—and manage systems and networks more efficiently at a reduced cost. In addition, the companies that utilize LDAP directories in an "extended enterprise" environment can implement easy and secure access to company information for their suppliers, business partners, customers and mobile users.
LDAP Integration Solution from Hewlett-Packard
As a first step in offering Directory Services, Hewlett-Packard Company strongly endorsed LDAP protocol. HP is now leading the charge in integrating the Operating Systems (HP-UX) and applications with LDAP directories available in the market. HP is working with many leading LDAP compliant directory vendors such as Netscape to ensure the timely availability of their products on HP-UX platforms. HP is also working with the vendors to define and extend schema definitions (data-structures for the information repository) in such a way as to create common definitions for applications and operating systems to share user and account information.
As a key component of the Domain Foundationware Program – a set of key technologies, protocols and tools aimed at simplifying and unifying application development for the internet/intranet/extranet environment – HP will provide an LDAP integration solution aimed at providing common authentication mechanism for applications and the operating system (HP-UX). The solution will help promote the LDAP standard further and help our customers quickly deploy directory-enabled solutions. The integration solution will run on platforms running HP-UX 11.x and will interface with any LDAP compliant directory. The solution will eliminate or at least minimize changes required to existing applications that want to use the LDAP compliant directory.
The key benefits of the LDAP Integration Solution to the customer include:
Conclusion
The importance of directory services has increased considerably with the explosion of the use of internet technologies. Organizations building and deploying their next generation IT infrastructure based on internet standards are using directory services as one of the key enabling technologies. LDAP is clearly emerging as the de-facto Internet standard for enterprise directory services. Leading network and computer vendors are integrating LDAP directory services with their core network and operating systems services.
Hewlett-Packard – in working with leading directory vendors such as Netscape Communications – will offer its customers an integrated LDAP directory server product with HP-UX. HP is also working with other vendors such as Cisco to make their implementations of LDAP based directory services available on HP-UX in a timely manner. As their directory servers and application development tools become available on HP, our customers will be able to use the integration solution with those directory implementations as well.