Address Book Server. Good with people.

With the new Address Book Server in Snow Leopard Server, it’s incredibly easy to access and synchronize contacts across multiple computers and the devices you own.

Introducing Address Book Server.

While most companies store contact information in centralized LDAP directories, IT administrators usually prevent users from modifying or adding their own contacts to the directory. This makes it hard for users to maintain a centralized list of contacts and access those contacts on multiple computers and devices they own.

The new Address Book Server in Snow Leopard Server solves this problem. Not only does it store contacts on the server, but it allows you to access and use those contacts on each of your Mac computers. With Address Book, you can even synchronize contacts to your iPhone for accessing your contacts on the go.

How it works.

Address Book Server uses CardDAV — the new protocol standard for exchange of contact information. With Address Book Server, contacts are stored as standard vCard files on the server, outside the LDAP directory. This allows users to easily modify contact information and add new contact fields, such as URLs for Twitter or Facebook accounts, without having to modify LDAP schema or get write access to the corporate directory server.

Users can access contacts directly in the Address Book application in Snow Leopard. To add a new contact, simply open Address Book and add a new card to the Address Book Server group. New contacts are accessible on all of your Mac computers and are immediately available to applications such as Mail, iChat, and more.

Simplified directory access.

Address Book Server not only lets users search their personal contacts but acts as a gateway to let them search for contacts within the organization’s directory service (sometimes called a Global Address List). When searched, Address Book Server delivers real-time results from personal address books as well as contacts stored in LDAP directories.