A directory integrator is designed to tie together data residing in directories, databases, collaborative systems, applications used for human resources (HR), customer relationship management (CRM), and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and other corporate applications.
It acts as a synchronization layer between a company's identity structure and the application sources of identity data, eliminating the need for a centralized datastore and therefore greatly easing the deployment of an enterprise directory solution. It features many built-in connectors to common data sources, an open-architecture Java development environment to extend or modify these connectors, and tools to apply logic to data as data is processed.
A directory integrator can help by:
- Synchronizing and exchanging information between applications or directory sources
- Managing data across a variety of data repositories, providing a consistent directory infrastructure that can be used by a wide variety of applications ranging from security and provisioning to Web services
- Providing a consistent view of additional directory-based information, such as product and pricing data, to applications beyond traditional user identity and passwords.