Subject: Re: LDAP outcome entry

From: Graham Klyne <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 28 Feb 2010 12:00:49 +0000

Aaron Stone wrote:
>> It also appears to be a popular
>> authorization framework for use with Samba.
> 
> I wish it were easier to deploy small setups for home and small
> business users, though :\

Me too!  We're trying to create a kind of ready-to-go environment for this, but 
it's a struggle:
http://imageweb.zoo.ox.ac.uk/wiki/index.php/ADMIRAL_LSDS_setup
http://imageweb.zoo.ox.ac.uk/wiki/index.php/Zakynthos_Configuration

#g

---

From: SJ Kissane <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2010 16:46:21 +1100

On 24 February 2010 09:43, Dave CROCKER <[email-masked]> wrote:

> 2. LDAP is not (widely) deployed or used across the open Internet, for use
> between random pairs.
>
I'm not sure it ever will. From a policy/legal viewpoint, sharing user
identity data between independent organizations has major privacy and
security concerns, and LDAP doesn't tend to be a good fit for managing that
in practice. In particular it doesn't support ideas like end user opt-in, or
letting users know who knows what about them. Newer federation technologies
like SAML, Liberty, WS-Federation, etc., tend to be a better fit for that
space.

> I am not sure whether there are restrictions that should be applied, about
> the /type/ of Enterprise that is popular for LDAP use.  I'd guess
> medium-to-large Enterprises, more than small, but could imagine otherwise.
>  It's probably not essential to get agreement on this, but the agreement
> might solidify agreement about whether LDAP is essential.
>
I would agree its mainly medium-to-large enterprises - to my knowledge, all
major enterprise ERP packages (e.g. Peoplesoft, SAP) support LDAP, all the
major enterprise collaboration suites (e.g. Notes/Domino, Exchange,
GroupWise, etc.) are based on LDAP, all major operating systems support LDAP
for user authentication, etc. But given products like Microsoft Small
Business Server, there's likely even many small business running an LDAP
without even realising it.

cheers
Simon Kissane