It is an open, vendor-neutral, industry-standard application protocol
It is used to access and maintain distributed directory information services over an Internet Protocol (IP) network
A common use of LDAP is to provide a central place to store usernames and passwords
LDAP enables the use of “Same-Sign On”
Same-Sign On allows users to use a single ID and password, but they need to enter it every time they have to log in
LDAPS: LDAP over SSL or StartTLS
LDAP vs. SSO
Most SSO systems are using LDAP under the hood
LDAP was not designed to work naively with web applications
LDAP is mostly found on on-premises and DevOps workloads
Some systems only support integration with LDAP and not SSO