Enterprise Beans allow a system's architecture to be separated from the business logic. The gain here is two-fold. First, if the underlying architecture needs to be changed or augmented, the business algorithms contained in the beans are readily transportable. Second, if the business logic needs refinement or change, the beans for this logic can be changed and plugged right into the place of the old components without requiring changes in the system's underlying foundation. The ability to connect and retrieve information from LDAP and DNS servers adds even more enterprise appeal to Java.
Database applications can rely on a standard for finding services and people.
In a way, these directory services are a database themselves. If your company uses LDAP for its company directory, you could integrate a Java database application with your LDAP server to send data mining reports to top managers via email automatically. By using a directory listing instead of hardcoding server names into your applications, you can ensure that your application will always find the proper server necessary to complete its work. The JNDI makes it easier to implement these examples into your application by providing a standard API for accessing directory and naming services in your Java applications. Well, JavaSoft is on the case.