Directory Service Design

Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services > 24. Case Study: A Large University > Summary and Lessons Learned

<  BACK CONTINUE  >
153021169001182127177100019128036004029190136140232051053054012003006022204051197090097

Summary and Lessons Learned

We want to stress again that this case study does not describe the University of Michigan's directory service, although many of our experiences designing and deploying that system are reflected.

Many of the decisions Big State made were a result of leading the charge into an immature and developing market. There were no books like this one available when Big State set about designing its service. Indeed, no one was quite sure what a directory was and all the things it would be used for. So the design and deployment was definitely a learning experience.

One important lesson learned was that it is easy to become a victim of your own success. This happened to Big State, whose initial directory deployment should have been redesigned to address problems with the namespace and data handling procedures and to introduce vendor-supplied software. Unfortunately, the service was popular enough that making these kinds of sweeping changes proved problematic .

Another important lesson learned was that the quality of data contained in various university data sources is relatively poor. These sources were thought to be the source of truth for information, but in fact they contained many errors. The increased visibility of these errors through the directory was partly responsible for raising general awareness of these data quality issues.



Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services,  2002 New Riders Publishing
<  BACK CONTINUE  >

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

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net