Novell is in discussions with other cities about implementing the system.
Babbitt said he hopes that Toronto's decision to use eDirectory will influence
other Canadian cities to do the same.
=====================================================
Toronto to standardize on eDirectory
Posted March 1, 2001 5:30 PM EST
By Carla Lancit, Technology in Government
The City of Toronto is in the first phase of a process to install Novell's
eDirectory as its corporate directory standard.
The municipality will use eDirectory to manage applications and provide user
authentication and single sign on for 25,000 employees. The technology is
being implemented in two stages.
"We wanted one repository for all of our resources," said Lana Viinamae,
director, information and technology, city of Toronto. "We've got to
establish the linkages between all of our other directories so that we can
create this one repository."
The next phase is designed to enable the city to provide personalized service
in support of its whole e-service initiative to the public,Viinamae said. This
would include booking recreational facilities and obtaining parking permits.
According to Viinamae, the directory services component will be
implemented by the end of the second quarter.
IBM will partner with Novell and the city on the implementation of the
solution.
The city's staff will be trained on the Novell products. "We need to make
sure that they can administer the directory on an ongoing basis, troubleshoot
it at least at the first level," said Viinamae. "We need to be fairly
self-sufficient, as this is going to be a very critical component of our
network."
While the public will not see the directory services changes, they will see
what the directory services allow them to do.
"This is very much a back-end initiative from our standpoint," said Viinamae.
"The city has about 440 servers, and each of them has their own directory
service. What we wanted to be able to do was say 'Here's all of the people
that are accessing these services', and have that all registered in one place."
Viinamae said the city's RFP demanded interoperability between the city's
many platforms, scalability, performance, security, and cost-effectiveness.
"It’s a great solution for them because it allows them to save money on
managing their existing enterprise, it gives them the flexibility to really expand
and grow, and it provides the performance that they need to address their
requirements in the future," said David Babbitt, director of sales for major
markets at Markham, Ont.-based Novell Canada Ltd..
Novell counts banks, governments, manufacturers, industrial and Fortune
500 companies as users of eDirectory. Canadian customers include Bank of
Montreal, Hydro Quebec, Husky Oil, Government of Canada, and
ministries within the provincial government.
Novell is in discussions with other cities about implementing the system.
Babbitt said he hopes that Toronto's decision to use eDirectory will influence
other Canadian cities to do the same. |
