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Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services > 17. Maintaining Data > The Importance of Data Maintenance

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The Importance of Data Maintenance

A directory without good data is virtually worthless. Worse yet, bad data can cause real harm. Imagine a directory providing a white pages service that users consult to find contact information of friends and colleagues. If the information they retrieve is not accurate, they will soon stop using the service.

Or, imagine a directory providing authentication and access control services to a variety of extranet applications. The directory contains information specifying which users are allowed to access the applications and their resources. If this information is not accurate, there is not much use in consulting the directory in the first place.

More serious consequences can result from inaccurate data as greater numbers of mission-critical applications use the directory. For example, consider an internal corporate directory used to controlaccess to vital corporate resources. An employee's termination is supposed to be reflected in the directory and his access to resources instantly revoked . Failure to provide accuracy in this case can open your organization to sabotage by disgruntled ex- employees , corporate espionage, and similar situations.

User distrust and dissatisfaction with the directory service is another thing that can result from poor data maintenance. If your directorycontains information about users, this dissatisfaction is especially likely. Whereas users may be disappointed to find incorrect information about others in the directory, they can get downright angry if they find incorrect information about themselves .

The potential for dire consequences that can result from inaccurate data in the directory can be used to your advantage. The very fact that the consequences are bad should result in a great deal of motivation to keep the data up-to-date. We will show later in this chapter how you can use this motivation to improve the quality of your directory data by distributing the authority to update it. Ultimately, you may want to allow users to update their own entries for some kinds of information, or you may want to empower a small group of directory content administrators to maintain directory data.



Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services,  2002 New Riders Publishing
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Index terms contained in this section

data
          maintenance 2nd 3rd
                    security issues
                    user distrust
directories
          data maintenance 2nd 3rd
                    security issues
                    user distrust
maintenance
          data 2nd 3rd
                    security issues
                    user distrust
security

2002, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.



Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services
Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0672323168
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 1997
Pages: 245

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