The directory-enabled enterprise

The network directory, formerly just a background technology for storing resource and user profiles, is now becoming a powerful tool for policy-based management. New directory products can store policies to regulate how users and applications access network resources. And a new breed of directory services permits linking directories for global updates or to marshal resources for critical tasks. For example, storing access policies in directory objects, such as user names, could efficiently provide authentication and authorization for internal users and even extranet users. This promises to make directories a much more important technology for administrators, particularly as they increasingly seek to improve network management by more closely controlling the relationship between applications and resources.