Oracle’s Directory Services Portfolio

1-12 Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrators Guide for Oracle Virtual Directory According to analysts, the majority of companies have several five or more directories used company-wide. If their intent is to provide data to an application that is used by multiple business partners, then the number of directories increases by at least the number of business partners using the application. Oracle believes that most enterprises need multiple tiers of directory services both internally and externally. Oracle Virtual Directory is one of the best ways to provide this requirement without duplicating data and without incurring large replicated infrastructure costs. Typical directory and database technology fails to resolve issues that arise when corporations are made up of independent business units, divisions and partners. Today’s directory server technology forces companies to build a single managed data infrastructure that requires huge political discussions on the following topics: ■ What data should the directory infrastructure contain? ■ Who will manage it? ■ Who will fund it? Issues such as who should pay for directories and who should manage them become critical factors that affect the success of deploying what should be relatively simple database technology. As shown in Figure 1–4 , there can be numerous directory sources in different formats and geographies, but also, owned by different parties. Additionally, other directories such as relational databases and email systems can and are added to these traditional enterprise directories. Figure 1–4 Distributed Directory Services The issues surrounding distribution of data are further complicated by the addition of LDAP-enabled applications such as Lotus Domino and Microsoft Exchange that have directory information but do not readily integrate into existing enterprise directories due to differing requirements in schema. Developers have traditionally succeeded at creating databases for specific purposes, because decision-making is driven by individual business managers sponsoring LDAP Enabled Applications Application Directory Services Distribution, Routing, and Federation Layer Other Business Units Geographies Centralized Data External Data and Partners Enterprise Directory Partner Directory E-Mail Directory Corporate Databases Internal and External Applications Application Application Application Other Bus. Unit Data