The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, or LDAP, has become one of the hottest topics in computing today. With this large potential market, LDAP vendors are trying to extend LDAP from simply a lightweight access protocol to a full directory service. This article attempts to assess the technology and product issues in two parts. This month, we discuss why LDAP is important, some of its history and how it fits into the future. Next month we will discuss products and how LDAP is being implemented.
Applications typically have custom implementations of directory services.
Directories are an integral part of many applications and are therefore strewn widely throughout companies. In fact, a recent study by Forrester Research has identified that the average company is maintaining 181 directories. At first glance, this number seems too high. However, close examination suggests that this number may, in fact, be low. Directory Works, which has provided directory-consulting services to many Fortune 500 companies, has discovered that it is not unusual to find over 600 instances of the same information, typically managed separately.