Given a name for a person or resource, it provides the information necessary to access that person or resource. Novell offers an in-depth view of how a directory should be used by defining the full service directory. By definition, the full service directory is a general-purpose database that manages discovery, security, storage, and relationships. Discovery enables you to browse, search, and retrieve specific information from the directory. For example, you can search for specific object types, such as, users, printers, and application objects, or search their specific properties such as users name, phone number, address, network number and so on.
Security controls access to the all the information that is stored in the directory.
This means that you can establish rules and grant rights to the users for the information in the directory. In addition, you can control the flow of information within your company, across networks of partners, and even your customers. Using the full service directory, you can manage the electronic transactions between companies through the cryptographic and key management systems. It includes both public-key cryptography and digital certificates for checking the authenticity of keys used in a public session. Storage is the database structure for the directory.