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IT Essentials — Assessing Infrastructure and Networks

storage, and OS should be adequately efficient and complex enough to deliver the relied-upon
performance standard.

Each manufacturer has its version of an OS, which is configured and customized to suit the
manufacturer’s hardware and interfaces (e.g., z/OS is the OS for IBM mainframes).

Directory Services

All computer networks have associated IT resources, such as, printers, storage devices, fax
machines, and more. Therefore, it makes sense that each resource is associated with a unique
network address.

A directory service is an OS service that provides a list of associated network IT resources and the
unique network address of each.

The X.500 protocol, developed by the Telecommunication Standardization Sector of the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU-T), is a standard for directory services, and was
initially developed to manage information on a global network of resources. Based on the X.500
standard, software vendors developed proprietary solutions to manage network devices related to
their corresponding OSs. A common directory service solution is Microsoft’s Active Directory, for use
with the Windows OS. Active Directory has additional functionality bundled with the X.500 standard,
and administrators can add new users, remove or modify network elements, specify usage and
security privileges, manage password policies, and perform other tasks.

An example of an open source directory protocol is the lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP),
which is derived from the X.500 standard. LDAP is used to access centrally stored network
information, but is simpler and less resource-intensive. When using LDAP, network resource
information for an organization can be stored and managed in a centralized location.

In a Linux environment where flexibility and customization are required, open source lightweight
directory Access protocol (LDAP) solutions such as OpenLDAP are frequently used. There are,
however, some drawbacks to using open source solutions in a Linux environment, including the
need for specifically skilled staff; slowed authentication when large LDAP repositories are in use; and
potential system incompatibility with some devices, applications, and web applications.

Messaging

Messaging refers to creating, sharing, using, and managing the transfer of enterprise information
over an IT network. Modern organizations use a variety of internally and externally supported
messaging tools to communicate internally with business partners and with customers.

One of the most common forms of computer messaging is email, which at its core is a message sent
from one computer and received by another over a network. Email and the concept of messaging in
general has evolved over time to include elements such as text, images, and attachments, and many
organizations open their networks for public messaging tools, such as Skype or Zoom.

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