Chapter 13. Evaluating Directory Products

   
  • Making the Right Product Choice

  • Categories of Directory Software

  • Evaluation Criteria for Directory Software

  • Reaching a Decision

  • Evaluating Directory Products Checklist

  • Further Reading

  • Looking Ahead

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 14, Piloting Your Directory Service. We will pause for a moment in Chapter 15, Analyzing and Reducing Costs, to 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 16, Putting Your Directory Service into Production.

It is important to choose the right software to power your directory deployment. Directory server and client products are 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 cumbersome, 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 focus mainly 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 packages.

We begin by presenting some reasons why it is important to choose the right directory products, then continue by looking at some general categories of directory services software. Next we talk about and illustrate how to create a good set of evaluation criteria. Finally, we present some advice that will help you devise a good decision-making process.

   


Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services
Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0672323168
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 242

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