What is a Directory Service?

A directory is an information source used to store information about interesting objects. A telephone directory stores information about telephone subscribers. In a file system, the directory stores information about files.

In a distributed computing system or a public computer network like the Internet, there are many interesting objects such as printers, fax servers, applications, databases, and other users. Users want to find and use these objects. Administrators want to manage how these objects are used.

In this document the terms directory and directory service refer to the directories found in public and private networks. A directory service differs from a directory in that it is both the directory information source and the services making the information available and usable to the users.