Where is LDAP headed?
Mike O’Brien: We’re really at step one. The reality right now is that LDAP is helping for name lookup and organizational viewing, but for real applications like synchronizing directories for supporting various applications such as payroll and the like, we’re not there yet because of the schema problems. The common fields people have agreed upon are things like your Internet mail address and an X.500 hierarchy. This is only addressing Mail applications, but that seems to be working and directories are coming together. Everyone has bought off on it, although everyone still wants you to use their proprietary API that people can write programs for. They say, if you want the real power of our directory, write to LDAP and our API. Microsoft, for one, is advancing Active Directory as the directory infrastructure that ties everything together. They have an LDAP interface, but encourage you to write to the Active Directory API’s. They claim this is an easier and more powerful API. That’s true f
