You do bring up a good point that a RDBMS, like Oracle or SQL Server, lets you add a logic-based protection mechanism around your data, whereas a directory service really only provides an ACL.
I don't know of any banking packages that let you do this: INSERT account_detail (account, type, value) (111, "C", "100000000"); Instead you have to invoke a stored procedure that does all kinds of behind-the-scenes services for you. So point taken. But as far as offering an account number, directories are equivalent in security as a RDBMS. -----Original Message----- From: Peter Brooks [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2010 2:55 PM To: Dustin Puryear Cc: Michael Ströder; [email protected] Subject: Re: [ldap] Re: Bank account information 2010/6/16 Dustin Puryear <[email protected]>: > In terms of comparing a directory service and a RDBMS, well, yes, you're > right. No real difference other than how the data is accessed. Also, if you > take into account virtual directory and metadirectory products, well, is > there really any line between the two anymore? > Modern databases have triggers and filters that allow processing to be part of the DBMS, and you can have multiple indices. Those are the main differences, really, LDAP is more like an ISAM [or KSAM] file. But these are minor quibbles really.
