Technical Overview of Directory Services Using the X.500 Protocol

This document is an overview of the X.500 standard for people not familiar with the technology. It compares and contrasts Directory Services based on X.500 with several of the other Directory services currently in use in the Internet. This paper also describes the status of the standard and provides references for further information on X.500 implementations and technical information. This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard.