Using LDAP to solve one companys problem of uncontrolled user data and passwords

This case study will analyze a massive undertaking of centrally consolidating user data, and in particular passwords, from numerous sources. The effort goes way beyond just the securely capturing and storing of the data but it builds a framework whereupon the data can be successfully used by numerous disparate applications for authentication, authorization, access control, and overall data management. This project faced some hurdles which seem all too common in the IT industry today. The number of applications for the company had grown out of control due to legitimate business needs and with each application came the responsibility and burden of user data security and management in very different fashions. Each target application existed in an island, or in a standalone model. The analysis will show how using open source tools we faced the challenge, put a solid solution in place, and did so without losing control of the technology and while keeping the budget at hand manageable. Commercial software alternatives were analyzed but we were after the maximum level of flexibility, control, robustness, and resilience. As such, very expensive and closed third party solutions did not appeal to us.