An LDAP directory service stores account user names and passwords. Using LDAP authentication enables you to consolidate the credentials for all of your Informatica users in a single identity store, simplifying the task of creating and updating account credentials.

You can use native authentication and LDAP authentication together in an Informatica domain. The Service Manager running on the master gateway node within the domain authenticates users based on the security domain the users belong to. If a user belongs to the default native security domain, the Service Manager authenticates the user against account information in the domain configuration repository. If the user belongs to an LDAP security domain, the Service Manager passes the user's credentials to the LDAP server for authentication.