Ldap neophite with basic conceptual question(s)???

[BobMCT]

Gentlemen;

I appologize in advance for my ignorance about ldap. I am trying to determine the feasibility of using ldap as a central authorization mechanism in our corporate intranet (mostly web based applications) and possibly tying in SAML for some tokenizing.

Currently we systems uses Bynari for mail filtering/handling and it already uses ldap for its address book. So here's my (embarassingly) basic question:

Is it possible to support multiple concurrent ldap tables/databases or whatever they are technically referred to on the same system? Is it possible to have one's ldap application access TWO different ldap tables/databases concurrently?

My superiors stated they would like to keep the mail address bood definitions as-is but not have to double define the entries but we need to support additional attributes to enhance our planned authentication/authorization.

Please point me in the correct direction to find this information because even with the ldap books I've perused and the many docs I've read on-line, there seems to be NO clear answer to these most basic questions?

Thanks to anyone who can help.

bobmct