Directories For 2000: - News Briefs

Computer Technology Review,  Oct, 1999  by David Waugh

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Integrating Management Tools With Directory Systems

Corporate computing, once centralized on mainframe systems, rapidly decentralized during the 1980s and 1990s. In an effort to efficiently link and manage the many individual components of network systems, directories were born. Directories provide a way of naming, describing, finding, accessing and protecting resources in a distributed computing environment.

Today's enterprise networks contain not only many systems, but also many directories. A core IT challenge is to reduce the number of directories through consolidation, migration, and integration. An effective method of managing directories is required for this consolidation effort in order to prevent disruption to end-users.

A central goal of directory management is to better facilitate the exchange of information between directories and the various applications that rely on them. A chief benefit of this approach is to lower redundancies. As an analogy, consider a corporation with five divisions, and each division maintains a phone book for names and functions. However, upon examination, it is found that on average the same name appears in three phone books--because Sales interacts with Manufacturing, and Manufacturing interacts with Marketing, etc. How do you clean up your directories? You could do it manually, but, with the ever-growing size of directories, you would be fighting a losing battle. The answer lies in automation: tools specifically designed for these tasks.

To state a maxim, in the IT industry, change is the only constant. Technology builds upon itself, escalating project development, accelerating processing speeds, and streamlining operations. That's the theory. In reality, often a big leap in technology such as the introduction of Windows 95 or Windows 2000 demands fast systems adaptation, often on an enterprise-wide scale. Failure to efficiently integrate new technologies can seriously harm a company, beginning at a core level such as being unable to link with key business systems.

Coupled with the inevitable progress of technology are the trends that impact our business environment. For instance, corporate buyouts and mergers that began in the 1980s with the real estate and retail sectors continue across many industries. Government downsizing on federal, state, and provincial levels has not abated. These influences can be termed "drivers"; that is, those critical factors that impact an industry, inevitably and irrevocably, imparting a sense of urgency to decision-making. Directory Management has been cast among the leading areas of IT planning, as it not only accommodates enterprise evolution, but also, indeed, can directly profit an organization through consolidating and focusing resources and personnel.

The more prominent drivers influencing directory management can be segmented into two groups: Business and Technical. Business drivers include mergers/acquisitions/reorganizations, customized administration, and reducing the cost of enterprise ownership. Technical drivers include Microsoft Exchange deployments, preparation for Windows 2000, and security enforcement (although, depending on circumstances, security can equally be a business policy issue).

Directory Services Vs. Directory Management

We should also distinguish between directory services and directory management because, often, the two concepts appear to overlap. Directory services--and the applications that use them--simplify key administrative tasks, such as user management, application security, and resource management, by creating what is essentially a database for enterprise networks. Directory services products include: NTDS, Microsoft's directory service for Windows NT; Active Directory, Microsoft's directory service for Windows 2000; NetWare Directory Services, Novell's directory service; and StreetTalk, Banyan's directory service. Directory management, on the other hand, manages network directory objects and their attributes in multiple directories. Typical enterprise directory management tasks include delegation, domain management, reporting, security management, policy management, directory synchronization, migration, and scripting.

Mergers/Acquisitions/Reorganizations

A corporate merger, acquisition, or reorganization does not only impact personnel, property, and shareholders: IT systems must undergo radical transformations. According to management consulting firm The Concours Group, the costs of systems and technology integration can represent 50 to 75 percent of the entire integration budget. Their report state that, "not surprisingly, companies grossly underestimate these costs and the final price tag rings in as much as four times higher than the initial estimate."

With any corporate transition, a core if challenge is to initiate planning, policy, and procedures with the dual objectives of raising network efficiencies while lowering Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). A secure, first step in this regard is a directory management strategy including automated tools that allow a network administrator to integrate and manage directory data at an enterprise level.