Summary

---

Summary

As enterprises strive to solve issues arising from the need for disparate systems to interoperate , an LDAP-based enterprise directory can often suit such purposes efficiently . Based on IETF RFC proposals, the LDAP standard offers solutions to the following issues:

• The type of data that can be stored (the information model)

• The organization of the data (the naming model)

• The methods for accessing and updating data in the directory (the functional model)

• The protection of data (the security model)

The LDAP standard is supported in many major Windows NT applications, including Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 and higher, Microsoft Site Server 3.0, Netscape Directory Server, many major Internet directories (Yahoo, BigFoot, WhoWhere, VeriSign, and so on), and even some network hardware devices.

To modify the data in the directory, you may import and export LDIF files, or you may freely obtain several SDKs from various vendors and organizations.

Using Microsoft's LDAP provider (contained within the ADSI libraries), you can programmatically access and manipulate data in an LDAP directory. In addition to performing standard binding operations, you can easily enumerate container objects and search the namespace using standard ANSI-SQL syntax in the Execute method of an ADO connection object.

In addition to managing native LDAP directory servers, Microsoft's adoption of the LDAP standard in several Microsoft BackOffice products allows programmatic manipulation of Exchange mailboxes and distribution lists, as well as other administrative tasks .

In the future, vendors will likely use the LDAP directory standard to store application configuration data to allow seamless integration of applications running on various vendor platforms. As LDAP directories proliferate, system architects and developers may quickly, easily, and seamlessly bridge the gaps that exist between systems of varying vendors, and simplify development and administrative efforts.

---

Top