LDAP Standard Released (RFC 1487)

Tim Howes, Gordon Good, and Mark Smith published RFC 1487, formally defining the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). This simplified protocol provided a vendor-neutral, network-based way to access directory services.

Significance

LDAP became the de facto standard for directory services, providing a universal 'phone book' for users, groups, and network resources. It laid the architectural foundation for centralized identity stores and was crucial for the development of enterprise IAM solutions.