9. Topology Design

Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services > 12. Choosing Directory Products

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Chapter 12. Choosing Directory Products

In Part III, "Deploying Your Directory Service," we turn our attention to the process of turning your directory design into a concrete, functional service. In this chapter, we discuss how to select the right directory software. We will then focus on how to pilot your directory service to validate and fine-tune your design in Chapter 13, "Piloting Your Directory Service." We will pause for a moment in Chapter 14, "Analyzing and Reducing Costs," to take a look at the costs of the directory service and how they can be minimized. Finally, we will throw the switch and put the directory service online in Chapter 15, "Going Production."

It is important to choose the right software to power your directory deployment. There are a number of directory server and client products available from a variety of sources, varying widely in capabilities and cost. If you choose the wrong products, your directory service deployment may fail or at least be more painful, costly, and less effective than it should be. If you choose the right products, your deployment should succeed with maximum effectiveness and minimum pain and cost. Your challenge is to pick the products that will best meet your directory needs and work well in your environment.

In this chapter, we help you choose the right products. We mainly focus on directory server software because that is likely to be the first and most important software you choose. We also touch briefly on client software, directory-enabled application software, and software development kits (SDKs) for LDAP. Because the directory software market is evolving rapidly , we do not cover specific software products in great depth.

We begin by presenting some reasons why it is important to choose the right directory products, followed by a look at some general categories of directory services software. Next, we talk about and illustrate how to create a good set of evaluation criteria. Then, we present some advice that will help you devise a good decision-making process. In the last section of this chapter we briefly describe some of the directory services software available today.

Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services,  2002 New Riders Publishing

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Index terms contained in this section

choosing
          directory software 2nd 3rd
directories
          software 2nd 3rd
software
          directory 2nd 3rd

2002, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.