The Most Complete History of Directory Services You Will Ever Find
Directory Services Timeline
The Most Complete History of Directory Services You Will Ever Find
(Until the next one comes along)
| 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. | |
| 1989 | Quipu (X.500 software package) released. | |
| 1990 | Estimated number of Internet hosts exceeds 250,000. | |
| 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. | |
| July 1993 | LDAP specification first published as RFC 1487. | |
| December 1995 | First standalone LDAP server (SLAPD) ships as part of U-M LDAP 3.2 release. | |
| April 1996 | 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. Howes serves as a directory server architect. | |
| September 1997 | Sun Microsystems releases Sun Directory Services 1.0, derived from U-M LDAP 3.2 |
3 |
| November 1997 | LDAPv3 named the winner of the PC Magazine Award for Technical Excellence. | |
| December 1997 | LDAPv3 approved as a proposed Internet Standard. | |
| 1998 | The OpenLDAP Project was started by Kurt Zeilenga. The project started by cloning the LDAP reference source from the University Of Michigan. | |
| January 1998 | Netscape ships the first commercial LDAPv3 directory server. | |
| March 1998 | Innosoft acquires Mark Walh’s Critical Angle company, relesases LDAP directory server product 4.1 one month later. | |
| July 1998 | Sun Microsystems ships Sun Directory Server 3.1, implementing LDAPv3 standards |
3 |
| July 1998 | Estimated number of Internet hosts exceeds 36 million. | |
| 1999 | AOL acquires Netscape and forms the iPlanet Alliance with Sun Microsystems. | |
| March 1999 | Innosoft team, led by Mark Wahl, releases Innosoft Distributed Directory Server 5.0 |
3 |
| March 2000 | Sun Microsystems acquires Innosoft, merges Innosoft directory code with iPlanet. This forms the foundation for the iPlanet Directory Access Router. |
3 |
| October 2001 | The iPlanet Alliance ends and Sun and Netscape fork the codebase. | |
| October 2004 | Apache Directory Server Top Level Project is formed after 1 year in incubation |
3 |
| December 2004 | RedHat Purchases Netscape Server products | |
| 2005 | Sun Microsystems initiates the OpenDS project. An open source directory server based on the Java platform. | |
| June 2005 | RedHat Releases Fedora Directory Server | |
| October 2006 | Apache Directory Server 1.0 is released |
3 |
| 2007 | UnboundID releases its directory server |
12 |
| 2008 | AOL Stops Supporting Netscape Products | |
| April 2009 | Oracle purchases Sun Microsystems | |
| May 2009 | RedHat changes the Fedora Directory Server to 389 Directory Server | |
| Feb 1, 2010 | ForgeRock is founded |
3 |
| Dec 2010 | ForgeRock releases OpenDJ | |
| July 2011 | Oracle releases Oracle Unified Directory |
Sources:
(1) Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services; Second Edition; Timothy A. Howes, Ph.D., Mark C. Smith, and Gordon S. Good.
(2) 389 Directory Server; History (http://directory.fedoraproject.org/wiki/History).
(3) Email exchange with Ludovic Poitou (ForgeRock).
(4) Press Release, March 16th, 1998; “Innosoft Acquires LDAP Technology Leader Critical Angle Inc. (http://www.pmdf.process.com/press/critical-angle-acquire.html).
(5) OpenLDAP; Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLDAP).
(6) iPlanet; Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPlanet).
(7) OpenDS; Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDS).
(8) Netscape; Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape).
(9) Press Release, April 20th, 2000; “Oracle Buys Sun” (http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/018363).
(10) 389 Directory Server; 389 Change FAQ (http://directory.fedoraproject.org/wiki/389_Change_FAQ).
(11) OpenDJ; Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDJ).
(12) Email exchange with Nick Crown (UnboundID).
(13) Press Release, July 20th, 2011; “Oracle Announces Oracle Unified Directory 11g” (http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/434211).
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Easy Identity 
Nice. What about Novell or Microsoft directories?
I acknowledge that Novell and Microsoft have both contributed to the directory services landscape in a big way. My intention on building this timeline, however, was to focus on stand-alone native LDAP servers. Novell and Microsoft have both been intentionally omitted as they could be considered more OS-based directory servers.
I beg to differ. Novell has long had distributions of eDirectory as stand alone LDAP servers on many platforms, including, Solaris, IBM AIX, HP-UX, Linux and Windows since 1999.
Hi !
FYI, ApacheDS was really started in 2002, but at this time, it was hosted at Sourceforge, under another name : ldapd. Alex Karasulu was the one who initiated the whole effort. (http://akarasulu.users.sourceforge.net/)
Great post, btw !
I have updated the diagram and timeline to recognize the UnboundID directory server. This was released in 2007 as a branch off of the OpenDS code base.
Even if AD is not a standalone LDAP server, at least AD/AM should be added to this list. Ok, it’s far from beng LDAP compliant, but still…
what about these?
– Siemens DirX
– Nokia OneNDS
– Alcatel-Lucent 8661
– IBM RACF
– OpenWave Directory
– IBM Tivoli Directory Server (ITDS)
– and don’t forget that at IBM, Lotus Domino had a Directory offering as well.
I’m sure I am forgetting a bunch but my point is that the Directory space isn’t quite as inbred as this timeline suggests.
Great post. What about Tivoli? and OID?
Hi Bill,
You are off to a good start but have quite a ways to go. Like the Unix family tree, LDAP has quite an extensive history as well. I wish that I had time to incorporate some of the innovations introduced at each version but for now these version histories provide a good time line for their evolution.
Here is the high level Sun/iPlanet/Java System/Enterprise Edition Directory Server history:
* iPlanet Directory Server 4.0 – December, 1999
* iPlanet Directory Server 4.1 – January, 2000
* iPlanet Directory Server 4.11 – February, 2000
* iPlanet Directory Server 4.12 – June, 2000
* iPlanet Directory Server 4.13 – February, 2001
* iPlanet Directory Server 4.15 – July, 2001
* iPlanet Directory Server 4.16 – March, 2002
* iPlanet Directory Server 5.0 – April, 2001
* iPlanet Directory Server 5.1 – December, 2001
* Directory Server Access Management Edition 5.0 – April, 2002
* Directory Server Access Management Edition 5.1 – June, 2002
* Sun Open Net Environment (ONE) Directory Server 5.1 – June, 2002
* Sun Java System Directory Server 5.2 2004Q2 – November, 2004
* Sun Open Net Environment (ONE) Directory Server 5.2 – January, 2005
* Sun Java System Directory Server 5.2 2005Q1 – February, 2005
* Sun Java System Directory Server 5.2 2005Q4 – September, 2005
* Sun Java System Directory Server Enterprise Edition (6.0) – March, 2007
* Sun Java System Directory Server Enterprise Edition (6.1) – June, 2007
* Sun Java System Directory Server Enterprise Edition (6.2) – September, 2007
* Sun Java System Directory Server Enterprise Edition (6.3) – April, 2008
* Sun Directory Server Enterprise Edition (7.0) – November, 2009
* Oracle Directory Server Enterprise Edition (11gR1) – August, 2010
* Oracle Directory Server Enterprise Edition (11gR1PS1) – May, 2011
Sun’s documentation for all above versions are available at:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/documentation/legacy-sun-identity-mgmt-193462.html#dirserveree
Here is Oracle Internet Directory Server’s version history as well:
1.0 – Dec 1997
2.0.4 – Oct 1999
3.0.1 – Feb 2003
9.0.4 – Mar 2004
10.1.2.0.2 – Nov 2005
10.1.4.0.1 – Aug 2006
10.1.4.2 – Sep 2007
10.1.4.3 – Dec 2008
11.1.1.1.0 (11g R1) – Jul 2009
11.1.1.2.0 (11g R1 PS 1) – Sep 2009
11.1.1.3.0 (11g R1 PS 2) – Apr 2010
11.1.1.4.0 (11g R1 PS 3) – Jan 2011
11.1.1.5.0 (11g R1 PS4) – May 2011
11.1.1.6.0 (11g R1 PS5) – Feb 2012
Lastly, there are other directory servers that you may want to graft into your DIT as well.
* Computer Associates directory
* Openwave (formerly software.com, phone.com, Unwired Planet, and Libris, Inc)
* IBM Directory Server
* SymLabs proxy
* Radiant Logic proxy
Enjoy!
Brad
Can’t be complete without Novell eDirectory. I know it started as an OS directory service, but it is also a fantastic LDAP directory, very easy to install and configure and the same directory install can be used as an LDAP or an OS directory service. Also can be installed on Windows, many flavours Unix and Linux.
Your readers may be interested in the sequence of events that led to the development of LDAP, based around work on DIXIE and UMich and DASED at UCL/PSI.
These developments are described in the following blog article.
http://cybermatters.info/2013/04/09/prehistory-of-ldap/
This history would be complete if it included Active Directoy as well. I have read many histories that seem to present AD then all the other LDAP vendors.
Jay Biddle
The graphical thumbnail seems to be unavailable – I have found it to be a very useful resource. Can you please place it back online ?
Thanks!