InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
June 1, 1998
A Brief History Of Directories
By
Karyl Scott
he first widely adopted directory technology was based on the X.500 standard developed by the CCITT international standards organization. X.500 is a directory service that includes a model for naming users and system resources, a method for computer systems to exchange directory information, and a way
of authenticating users.
While a number of IS shops adopted X.500 products, the service failed to live up to its potential, largely because it was difficult to implement.
In 1994, the Internet Engineering Task Force issued the first version of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol standard, a smaller, more efficient version of X.500, developed at the University of Michigan, that lets clients access and manage information in a centralized directory service.
Some 40 vendors have decided to support LDAP since 1996, and the standard is now on its third generation. The primary reason behind its growing acceptanceis that LDAP takes up less memory and uses fewer processing resources than X.500.
Return to main story, " Enterprise Harmony ."
Illustration by David Chen
Back to News In Review
Send Us Your Feedback
Top of the Page
Home | Career | Financials | NewsFlash
Resource Centers | Shop Talk | Search
Featured Microsite
