LDAP is a protocol based on the X.500 standard, which is used to access information that is stored through a centralized directory that contains the information of our organization.

LDAP has a client/server architecture, where the server can use a variety of databases to store a directory, each optimized for fast, high-volume read operations. When a client application is connected to an LDAP server, most of the time it will be for queries, although it is also possible to make changes to the directory entries. If the client application is trying to modify the information in an LDAP directory, the server will try to verify that the user has the necessary permissions to update the information.

The biggest advantage of LDAP is that you can consolidate information for an entire organization within a central repository. For example, instead of managing user lists for each group within an organization, you can use LDAP as a central directory, which is accessible from anywhere in the network. Since LDAP supports Secure Connection Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS), confidential data can be protected from hackers.

Another advantage of LDAP is that your company can access the LDAP directory from almost any computing platform, from any of the applications that is readily available for LDAP. It is also easy to customize your internal business applications to add LDAP support.