SERAS

How to securly access your LDAP directories (AD, OpenLDAP, eDir) via REST

REST APIs for every LDAP-based data server

The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) has existed since the 1990s. It works well for accessing directories, but unfortunately, it is not web-based. At the moment, REST is the service, web applications want to use handling data. But how can you access data in a LDAP directory securely via REST?

SERAS opens your LDAP directory in a secure way to access the data via https using secure tokens with strictly limited services, offering only access to data you’re allowed to see and operations you’re allowed to execute.

It simplifies REST APIs for any LDAP-based data server, and can be configured as a highly flexible, resilient, and scalable system (even in cluster).

SERAS Functions

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Security

No passwords are transmitted. If configured accordingly, no password is transmitted over the Internet; instead, tokens are used.

Only approved operations are performed by SERAS. You define all approved data operations; all other operations that are not explicitly approved are blocked.

Reduced attack surface with SERAS. They secure the REST APIs you have defined. In the event of a data breach, only these APIs and not the data itself will be attacked.

A stack for backup. SERAS gives you the opportunity to implement the REST APIs, which:

can support all client environments

can be connected to several LDAP data sources at the same time

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Software development separate from data access

Today, identification services from Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook enable hundreds of companies to do business thanks to REST and REST APIs.

REST is the most logical, efficient, and widely used standard for creating APIs for Internet services. SERAS from SKyPRO allows system administrators to separate data access from business logic and to define a clearly structured REST API service. The front-end programmers with strong development skills (the application programmers) can then concentrate on the business-logical tasks.

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One API

Another significant advantage of SERAS is that data managers are able to create RESTful APIs that can be easily accessed with development language without installing driver software. All modern languages and even legacy languages such as COBOL or Fortran support HTTP / HTTPS and thus REST out-of-the-box.

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Micro Services

Nowadays, ubiquitous connectivity is essential. More and more companies want to adapt to new micro services architectures and agile development techniques, which can divide large, monolithic applications into smaller modules. The RESTful Services are naturally based on this design principle of the architecture and give small and more autonomous teams the opportunity to iterate more quickly by making minor improvements in the necessary functionality, getting feedback from customers, and iterating again.