VI: Case Studies

Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services > 21. Directory-Enabling ExistingApplications > Reasons to Directory-Enable Existing Applications

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Reasons to Directory-Enable Existing Applications

If you already have your own reasons for integrating existing applications with your directory service, you can safely skip this section. However, you may not be aware of many other good reasons to directory-enable an existing application. By integrating existing applications with your directory service, you can do any or all of the following:

  • Enable new features in the applications.   For example, users of an email client application can access shared address books.

  • Lower your data management costs.   This is usually accomplished by eliminating redundant copies of data and decommissioning private directories and databases.

  • Simplify life for end users by leveraging your deployed directory service.   For example, using a centralized directory for authentication reduces the number of distinct passwords end users need to remember.

  • Bring the directory service to your end users.   By enhancing an existing application instead of changing to a new one, you make it easier for end users to adopt your directory service.

Note that sometimes it does not make sense to integrate an application with a directory service. For example, the data the application uses may violate your directory data policy. Please refer to Chapter 20for more information on when it does not make sense to directory-enable an application.

Each of the benefits of integrating an application with a directory service is discussed further in the following sections.

Enabling New Features in Applications

The process of LDAP integration can be used to add entirely new features to applications. The added features can increase the value of the application and expose users to your directory service in a new way. For example, suppose you have a widely used email application with only local lookup capabilities for its address book; you could add LDAP lookup capabilities so that users could access other address books shared across the organization. They would thus access your directory service more because it would be closely tied to a task they perform often: addressing and sending email.

New application features like a local-to-global address book upgrade are extensions of existing ones. However, added features can be completely new, too. For example, modifying a server application to store its configuration information in an LDAP directory service allows the configuration to be shared among a set of similarly configured servers, thereby reducing server management costs and enabling new server deployment scenarios.

Lowering Your Data Management Costs

Directory-enabling an application that has a private, application-specific data store can reduce the cost of data management: The private data store can be taken out of service, and all the resources used to run and maintain it can be eliminated. These old, application-specific directories and databases are often more expensive to maintain than a centralized, LDAP-based directory service; expertise is harder to find, management tools are weaker, and platform choices are more limited than with an LDAP directory.

Another way data management costs can be reduced is by eliminating redundant copies of data elements; the need for synchronization between a data source and your centralized directory is eliminated with them. If some of the data used by the application is personal data, your end users will appreciate that data about them is stored in one fewer place ”therefore making changes to the data easier.

For example, consider an existing workflow system with its own database storing information about users of the system (see Figure 21.1). In this system, end users and administrators must update two separate information stores.

Figure 21.1 A workflow application with a private database.

By consolidating into the directory service the information held in the private database, redundant data is eliminated and the system as a whole is simplified (see Figure 21.2).

Figure 21.2 The directory-enabled workflow application.

Simplifying Life for End Users

Another important reason to leverage your deployed directory service in existing applications is to simplify life for end users. Part of this simplification is achieved by eliminating redundant, application-specific data stores. For example, if all your applications that send postal mail use a common directory service to determine a person's mailing address, employees need to change their address in only one place when they move.

Another simplification possible through use of a centralized directory is to create a consistent view of information from within a variety of applications. All applications that use the same LDAP directory service access the same information by using the same protocol. Use of a common data store and access method leads to greater consistency in the look and feel of different applications and the terminology they use. This makes it easier for end users to carry over their knowledge of one application to another.

A related motivating factor is that over time, people will expect the directory service to be used behind the scenes when they access certain kinds of information. For example, novice users who discover your Web-based directory phonebook application may assume that all contact information about them is stored in one directory service. They will be disappointed if the same information they find in the phonebook isn't returned when they execute the finger command on their UNIX workstation. This unfortunate situation is shown in Figure 21.3.

Figure 21.3 Unintegrated contact information lookup applications.

By directory-enabling the finger service and the Exchange client, end user confusion and frustration can be reduced. This happier situation is depicted in Figure 21.4.

Figure 21.4 Integrated, directory-enabled contact information lookup applications.

Bringing the Directory Service to Your End Users

The benefit of directory-enabling can be somewhat self-serving, especially if one of your goals is simply to increase the use and visibility of your directory. Directory-enabling existing applications brings the directory service closer to your end users ”making it more likely that they will use the service. By making your directory service an essential part of your users' everyday life, you ensure future support for it. More people using a directory service should also result in better data quality and more-consistent data across data stores.

People are more likely to try a new version of an existing software application they already use than they are to try a completely new application. For this reason, it is often better to add a little bit of LDAP support to an existing application than it is to invest in the development and deployment of a brand new, richly featured directory-enabled application. The key is to add features that are valuable to your users so they will want to use your directory service.

For example, you might have a Web-based building and conference room location service running on one of your intranet Web servers. Enhancing this application to retrieve an employee's office location from the directory so that people, buildings , and conference rooms can be located adds value for end users and increases the use of your directory service.



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

applications
          directory-enabling 2nd
                    enabling new features 2nd
                    increasing directory service access for users 2nd 3rd
                    lowering data management costs 2nd
                    simplifying processes for users 2nd 3rd
costs
         data management
                    lowering 2nd
data
         lowering management costs
                    directory-enabling applications 2nd
directories
          enabling applications 2nd 3rd 4th
                    increasing access for users 2nd 3rd
                    lowering data management costs 2nd
                    simplifying processes for users 2nd 3rd
enabling
          applications 2nd
                    enabling new features 2nd
                    increasing directory service access for users 2nd 3rd
                    lowering data management costs 2nd
                    simplifying processes for users 2nd 3rd
existing applications
          directory-enabling 2nd
                    enabling new features 2nd
                    increasing access for users 2nd 3rd
                    lowering data management costs 2nd
                    simplifying processes for users 2nd 3rd
lowering
         data management costs
                    directory-enabling applications 2nd
new features
          directory-enabling applications 2nd
users
         increasing access for for
                    directory-enabling applications 2nd 3rd
         simplifying processes for
                    directory-enabling applications 2nd 3rd

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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