A History of LDAP [1]#
LDAP was co-developed by Tim Howes of the University of Michigan, Steve Kille of Isode Limited, and Wengyik Yeong
Below is a History of LDAP and some other Information Technology notes.
Feel free to add to this list or post comments and references.
Date Event | Source |
---|---|
1969 | First ARPANET node comes online; first RFC published. |
1973 | Ethernet invented by Xerox PARC researchers. |
1982 | TCP/IP replaces older Arpanet protocols on the Internet. |
1982 | First distributed computing research paper on Grapevine published by Xerox PARC researchers. |
1984 | Internet DNS comes online. |
1986 | IETF formally chartered. |
1987 | LattisNet/SynOptics Communications shipped 10 megabits/sec data transfer rates over Unshielded Twisted Pair, telephone wire |
1998 | ZOOMIT Corporation was founded |
1989 | QUIPU (X.500 software package) released. |
1989 | PARADISE project work began |
1990 | Estimated number of Internet hosts exceeds 250,000. |
1990 | 10BASE-T (IEEE 802.3i was standardized |
1990 | First version of the X.500 standard published. |
1991 | A team at CERN headed by Tim Berners-Lee releases the first World Wide Web software. |
1992 | University of Michigan developers release the first LDAP software. |
1993 | NDS debuts in NetWare 4.0. |
1993-07 | LDAP was co-developed by Tim Howes of the University of Michigan, Steve Kille of Isode Limited, and Wengyik Yeong![]() |
1995-12 | First standalone LDAP server (SLAPD) ships as part of U-M LDAP 3.2 release. |
1996-04 | Consortium of more than 40 leading software vendors endorses LDAP as the Internet directory service protocol of choice. |
1996 | Netscape Hires Tim Howes, Mark Smith, and Gordon Good from University of Michigan. Tim Howes serves as a directory server architect. |
1997-09 | Sun Microsystems releases Sun Directory Services 1.0, derived from U-M LDAP 3.2 |
1997-11 | LDAPv3 named the winner of the PC Magazine Award for Technical Excellence. |
1997-11 | LDAPv3 approved as a proposed Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Standard. |
1998 | The OpenLDAP Project was started by Kurt Zeilenga. The project started by cloning the LDAP reference source from the University of Michigan. |
1998-01 | Netscape ships the first commercial LDAPv3 directory server. |
1998-03 | Innosoft International acquires Mark Wahl’s Critical Angle Inc releases LDAP directory server product 4.1 one month later. |
1998-07 | Sun Microsystems ships Sun Microsystems Directory Server 3.1, implementing LDAPv3 standards |
1998-07 | Estimated number of Internet hosts exceeds 36 million. |
1999 | Novell INC release EDirectory on platforms other than NetWare. |
1999 | AOL acquires Netscape and forms the iPlanet Alliance with Sun Microsystems. |
1999-03 | Innosoft International team, led by Mark Wahl, releases Innosoft International Distributed Directory Server 5.0 |
1999 | Microsoft Active Directory was previewed. |
2000-03 | Sun Microsystems acquires Innosoft International, merges Innosoft International directory code with iPlanet. This forms the foundation for the iPlanet Directory Access Router. |
2000 | Windows Server 2000, first release of Microsoft Active Directory, was released to manufacturing on December 15, 1999. Windows 2000 officially launched to retail on February 17, 2000.[3] |
2000-07 | DirXML initial Release |
2001-03 | The iPlanet Alliance ends and Sun Microsystems and Netscape fork the codebase. |
2001 | Ping Identity was founded |
2004-03 | Apache Directory Server Top Level Project is formed after 1 year in incubation |
2004-03 | RedHat Purchases Netscape Server products |
2005 | Sun Microsystems initiates the OpenDS project. An Open Source directory server based on the Java platform. |
2005-05 | Red Hat Releases Fedora Directory Server |
2006-10 | Apache Directory Project Apache Directory 1.0 is released |
2007 | UnboundID releases its directory server |
2008 | AOL Stops Supporting Netscape Products |
2009-04 | Oracle purchased Sun Microsystems |
2009-05 | Red Hat changes the Fedora Directory Server to 389 Directory Server |
2010-02-01 | ForgeRock is founded |
2010-12 | ForgeRock releases OpenDJ |
2011-12 | Oracle releases Oracle Unified Directory |
2011 | Novell INC acquisition was completed by Attachmate Group and EDirectory is now under the NetIQ brand. |
2014-11-20 | Micro Focus completed its merger with the Attachmate Group of companies and EDirectory is now under the Micro Focus brand. |
2016 | UnboundID was acquired by Ping Identity |
2016-09-07 | Micro Focus announced its intent to merge with Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s software business segment. |
2018-07-02 | Micro Focus announced it would would sell its SUSE business segment to EQT Partners for $2.535 billion |
More Information#
There might be more information for this subject on one of the following:[#1] - http://idmdude.com/2012/04/13/the-most-complete-history-of-directory-services-you-will-ever-find/

[#3] - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/1999/dec99/w2krtmpr.aspx retrieved 2012-06-21