March 1995
LDAP standardized
RFC 1777 defined the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol in March 1995 — a TCPTransmission Control Protocol — a reliable, connection-oriented protocol used on the internet.-based standard for querying and updating directory services.
What it was for
LDAP models organizations as a tree of entries (users, groups, printers) with attributes like `cn`, `mail`, and `memberOf`. It replaced heavier X.500 DAP for most deployments and became the backbone of Active Directory, OpenLDAP, and corporate SSO. Every 'sign in with your company account' flow still traces back to directory lookups LDAP made universal.
Companies
- IETF
Why it's here
LDAP turned enterprise directories into a simple, interoperable network protocol.
Why it mattered
It became the standard way applications authenticate users and look up org structure at scale.
What it solved
Apps needed a lightweight way to read user and group data from centralized directories without proprietary APIs.
Media
ImageLightweight Directory Access ProtocolRferrero, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Related
- DNS standardizedNovember 1983
- TLS 1.0 standardizedJanuary 1999
- OpenID Connect 1.0 publishedFebruary 25, 2014