Concepts: About Directory Services


A directory service provides a central repository for information about computer users and resources in an organization. Storing administrative data in a central repository has many benefits:

In education and enterprise environments, directory services are the ideal way to manage users and computing resources. Organizations with as few as 10 people can benefit by deploying a directory service.

Directory services can be doubly beneficial. They centralize system and network administration, and they simplify a user's experience on the network. With directory services, information about all the users-such as their names, passwords, and locations of network home directories-can be maintained centrally rather than on each computer individually. Directory services can also maintain centralized information about printers, computers, and other network resources. Having information about users and resources centralized can reduce the system administrator's user management burden. In addition, users can log in to any authorized computer on the network. Anywhere a user logs in, the user can get the same home directory, and with it the user's personal desktop appears, customized for the user's individual preferences. The user always has access to personal files and can easily locate and use authorized network resources.