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The Directory Services Project: About Directory Services

CITES > Project Status > Directory Services > About Directory Services

What Is a Directory Service?

A directory service is a storehouse of information about people, resources, and settings for computer applications.

Directory services are like databases because they store large amounts of data and provide quick access to that data; unlike databases, they aren't intended to be used when the data is constantly changing.

 

What Is Stored in a Directory Service?

The contents of a directory service are flexible and user-definable.

• Typically, directory services contain information about people, such as names, addresses, and phone numbers.
• Directory services may also contain information about groups, such as members of a department or students in a class.
• Directory services are frequently used to store information that can be used by specific computer applications; examples include email delivery options, user customization, videoconferencing access rights, and portals. Many applications can be configured to access directory services and can store their configuration data in a directory service.
• Directory services often have the ability to protect portions of their data by means of authentication and authorization controls, which allow only privileged people and applications to see that data; this is an important consideration with regard to privacy and protection of personal information.

 

What Are Some Common Uses of a Directory Service?

• The most common use of a directory service is an electronic phone book.
• A directory service can also be used to restrict access to resources, such as a class web site, to a specific group of people.

With a directory service, users can be granted access to services, and resources can be allocated automatically. In addition, generic user preferences can be stored in the directory, making it easy for the user to maintain a single profile for multiple applications.

• Some services and departments maintain internal directories instead of pulling from a central directory whenever data is needed. Directory services can send out real-time data about changes, additions, and deletions to keep the service and departmental directories synchronized.

  For example, when new students are added to the central directory, some of their information can be distributed to other privileged service and departmental directories.