Directory Services: Design, Implementation and Management (Enterprise Computing) Book

X.500, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and their proprietary relatives--Microsoft Active Directory and Novell NDS eDirectory--are changing the way organisations structure their computer systems. They make it easier to achieve truly distributed computing, in which individual users' rights to access data and devices can be managed centrally, and apparently unified filesystems can be spread across global networks. Directory Services: Design Implementation, and Management provides a so-so take on its title subject, giving its readers an overview--albeit a sometimes muddled one--of directory services, their advantages and the risks involved in deploying them. The problem with this slender book is that it attempts to stuff too much information into its prose and illustrations. Too many diagrams are festivals of shapes and arrows, which are referred to in text spread across multiple pages and so very hard to decipher. It also suffers from the curse of too many writers. No fewer than seven people collaborated on the 295 pages that make up this book. What is more, though it's good that the book covers solutions from both Novell and Microsoft, there's no feature comparison of the two or analysis of the sorts of business situations into which each fits best. Look elsewhere for better coverage of directory services. --David Wall Topics covered: Directory services, in terms of standards--LDAP and X.500--and in terms of proprietary offerings from Microsoft and Novell. Each section defines terms and sketches key operational details, and explains the processes followed in finding information and making security decisions.Read More