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What is LDAP used for?

I know that LDAP is used to provide some information and to help facilitate authorization. But what are the other usages of LDAP?

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Question added by Usama Saad , Senior Software Engineer (Java) , Saudi Catering Company
Date Posted: 2013/09/22
Mohammad Khalid Saifullah
by Mohammad Khalid Saifullah , Technical Lead , Wipro Technologies Ltd

The main benefit of using LDAP is that information for an entire organization can be consolidated into a central repository. For example, rather than managing user lists for each group within an organization, LDAP can be used as a central directory accessible from anywhere on the network. And because LDAP supports Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS), sensitive data can be protected from prying eyes.

LDAP also supports a number of back-end databases in which to store directories. This allows administrators the flexibility to deploy the database best suited for the type of information the server is to disseminate. Because LDAP also has a well-defined client Application Programming Interface (API), the number of LDAP-enabled applications are numerous and increasing in quantity and quality.

Feras Elias
by Feras Elias , Technical Support Officer , Legal Affairs Department

LDAP is a protocol for accessing a directory. A directory contains objects; generally those related to users, groups, computers, printers and so on; company structure information (although frankly you can extend it and store anything in there).

LDAP gives you query methods to add, update and remove objects within a directory (and a bunch more, but those are the central ones).

 

What LDAP does not do is provide a database; a database provides LDAP access to itself, not the other way around. It is much more than signup.

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