The Ldap Server And It’s Development Explained
As organisations have expanded, and migrated from just using telephones to email and web based systems, so the humble company directory has needed to expand and grow. In the 1980s telecommunication companies created the X.500 specification, which is a collection of protocols to create and distribute a directory of data.
X.500 directory services were accessed via the X.500 Directory Access Protocol (DAP) which used the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) protocol stack. As organisations [spi]began|started[/spin] to standardise on TCP/IP networks, many found the complexity of managing a large OSI/DAP network too much. The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) was created to access X.500 directory servers over TCP/IP.
An LDAP server uses the concept of an organisational structure to organise data, which can include usernames, telephone numbers, office locations, photos, and more. This directory structure can be based on an organisation’s structure, making LDAP directories an obvious fit for replacing an organisation’s phonebook. The initial X.500 specification was deliberately designed with this scalable organisation of information in mind, which is one of the main factors behind the success of LDAP.
With the development of Voice Over IP (VOIP) systems an entire company’s data can exist within LDAP, allowing access from email clients, instant messaging applications, and HR systems. Even solutions such as Microsoft’s Active Directory are based on LDAP and X.500 directory structures. LDAP’s flexibility makes it an useful of any company infrastructure.
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