Directory Service (3)
The concept of a global directory service was invented to provide a single, centralized repository of directory information that any application can access
- Solution: X.500 ISO with its Directory Access Protocol, but limited to OSI communication layer that is not adopted by the Internet
- Solution: LDAP, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, which is running over TCP/IP, scalable, affordable
A directory service IS NOT
- a file server
- an ftp server
- a web server
- a relational database
A directory service is tuned for read operations (to maximize overall search performance)