0.32: What are name services? (brief description)

Distributed computing environments often employ naming and directory services to obtain shared components and resources. Naming and directory services associate names with locations, services, information, and resources. Naming services provide name-to-object mappings. Directory services provide information on objects and the search tools required to locate those objects. There are many naming and directory service implementations, and the interfaces to them vary.

Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) provides a common interface that is used to access the various naming and directory services. Each object has a unique JNDI name by which other objects can identify and find it.