PS: On the "Gossip Article" ... here's the "real world" ... tell me
where you find one (1) reference to Novell?
=====================================================================
Netscape's Vision Shows Teeth
(10/06/97; 2:00 p.m. EDT)
By Saroja Girishankar, InternetWeek
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- What would you give up for a single
enterprisewide applications architecture?
Netscape co-founder and executive vice president for products, Marc
Andreessen, is betting that the first thing you'd give up is Microsoft's control
over the future of your computing environment.
In an interview last week, Andreessen said his company has figured out how
to craft such an integrated IT infrastructure using industry-standard Internet,
Java, and Web technology and give corporate IT managers centralized
control over it at the same time.
And to put teeth behind its vision, Andreessen revealed that Netscape is
engaged in forming partnerships with myriad vendors -- including Computer
Associates, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, PeopleSoft, and SAP America.
"We will work on everything and work with everything, using standards to be
the defining provider of intranet, extranet, and Internet solutions and services,
with a complete systems approach to take businesses online," Andreessen
said.
The linchpin of Netscape's vision is to use the Lightweight Directory Access
Protocol (LDAP), version 3.0, to provide a single central directory and
secure entry point for access to all systems under the corporate umbrella and
control access from customers, distributors, and suppliers. The icing is the
ability to outsource the entire intranet and extranet operation, or just the
chunks an IT manager wants to offload.
All this will happen in six to 12 months, Andreessen said.
Integration efforts with other vendors are banked on the use of standard
interfaces, including LDAP, version 3; Java support; the Simple Network
Management Protocol; and individual vendors' published APIs.
LDAP 3.0 is waiting for approval by the Internet Engineering Task Force.
Version 3.0 supports 35 international languages and selective replication,
making it easier to add extranet partners. It also offers roaming, supporting
handheld and other devices.
Users and industry experts are keen on Netscape's strategy.
"Open standards and using LDAP as a central repository of user information
and directory service is really what global electronic commerce needs and is
being built on," said Phyllis Michaelides, program manager for manufacturing
in corporate information systems at AlliedSignal, a manufacturer in the midst
of designing its intranet and extranet.
"Corporate users end up being the winners of Netscape's strategy, because a
centralized directory for all applications and integration among different
applications is key to electronic commerce," according to David Mason,
president of Northeast Consulting Resources, a Boston consulting company.
"In the end, it makes Netscape a robust cross-platform vendor, an important
factor for E-commerce deployment, unlike Microsoft," Mason said.
Mason said Microsoft is using multiple proprietary directories today and
supports its own ActiveX programming environment, unlike Netscape's native
support for industry standards such as Java and LDAP.
Microsoft product managers, however, maintained that their products are
competitive.
The first move in the three-pronged strategy involves binding Netscape's
next-generation servers, code-named Apollo, with popular business,
supply-chain, electronic data interchange, E-mail, and network and systems
management applications.
As a result, these programs will operate as a complete system using a single
central directory -- Netscape's announced LDAP 3.0-compliant server,
which is in beta testing -- with a single-user access point.
By natively supporting LDAP, Netscape will let users pull directory
information from different directories into the central directory. Netscape is
building compliance with other vendor applications, such as SAP R/3, version
4, using that company's APIs and LDAP. Most leading software vendors are
adopting the LDAP interface.
Andreessen said that X.509v3-compliant digital certificates, stored in
Netscape's LDAP directory server in the form of digital IDs, will authenticate
and authorize access to applications based on a company's security and
access policies. Netscape's Proxy Server 3.5, to be unveiled this week at
NetWorld+Interop in Atlanta, handles advanced filtering, caching and
on-command replication.
On the management front, Netscape is outfitting its Apollo servers with
SNMP Management Information Bases (MIBs), and other interfaces that
will integrate them tightly with CA's Unicenter, HP's OpenView, and IBM's
Tivoli management systems.
The second step in the strategy calls for exposing all the directory, security,
database, messaging, calendering, and content management services of the
Apollo servers as JavaBeans components so that applications developers can
drop them into Java applications or other kinds of software.
A parallel effort will provide users the same access to information stored on
Apollo servers -- whether they are using PCs, network computers, handheld
devices, or TV set-top boxes -- by embedding Netscape's pure Java
Navigator in those devices.
For customers wanting online commerce services, Netscape will deliver it
through Actra, a joint venture between Netscape and GE Information
Services.
Jonathan Weinstein, lead product manager for the Site Server commerce
products at Microsoft, said Microsoft's forthcoming Commerce Interchange
server will support business-to-business commerce applications, routing of
business objects compatible with EDI, and integration with applications
such as SAP R/3.
Microsoft will support LDAP, version 3, in Windows NT 5.0's Active
Directory, which the company intends to make the central directory for all its
BackOffice applications, including the upcoming version of Exchange. Neither
product is expected to ship before next year, however.
=====================================================================
....... so much for that one.. |
