IBM, Novell pitching networks standard
By Ben Heskett
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
July 6, 1999, 7:55 p.m. PT
Novell and IBM, two giants of the corporate software market, will tomorrow
introduce a new standards effort intended to simplify the manner in which
companies can access network-based information, according to sources.
The most tangible result of the alliance will be a new organization, dubbed the Directory
Interoperability Forum, that is targeted at providing more software standards so that
increasingly important back-end computing services---commonly known as a
directory---can communicate with each other.
Directory services software has become a linchpin in several companies' strategies,
perhaps best exemplified by Novell's increasing reliance on its so-called NDS software to
drive sales of associated applications. IBM has also embarked on a directory-based
strategy, based in large part on its need to tie a wide array of internally-developed software
together.
The two companies are accordingly looking to speed development of more advanced
interfaces so that directory software can more easily communicate and share information,
no matter what company built the program, sources said.
A directory provides a network manager with a central
repository, or database, in which a sophisticated set of
information about users, computer systems and software,
and network-attached devices can be stored. Increasingly
this type of software technology is being looked at as a
savior as networks of computer users in corporations and
across the Internet continue to grow.
While a standard called the lightweight directory access
protocol, or LDAP, has been widely adopted for network
interoperability, it thus far lacks sophisticated features such
as the ability to replicate a change in directory-stored
information across various types of directory software.
In addition to the commitment from Novell and IBM, a bevy of
third-party software providers will endorse the organization's
intentions.
The effort is intended to build on the work underway in the
Distributed Management Task Force. That initiative,
commonly referred to as DEN for directory-enabled network, is directed at providing a
common format for how information is stored in a directory upon which third-party software
developers can build. |
