Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directories are commonplace in today's enterprise. It isn't unusual to find one directory that supports authentication and management of users and computers, another that supports VPN users, and a third that supports public key infrastructure (PKI). The growing sophistication of applications available to extranet and Internet users typified by business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), and government-to-citizen systems has led to increased use of directories in the demilitarized zone (DMZ), too. Although Active Directory (AD) can support all these applications, AD requires a supporting infrastructure, such as DNS services, and significantly increases management overhead. Consequently, AD might be too heavyweight a solution for environments that require only a simple LDAP directory. In other cases, organizations that have deployed LDAP directories struggle with the problem of integrating directory security with OS security, often having to manage each separately and with different sets of credentials. . . .
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