NYT, November 18, 1998
Novell and Cisco Set Broad Compatibility Accord
By JOHN MARKOFF
AS VEGAS -- Novell Corp. and Cisco Corp., two major players in the computer networking
industry, will announce Wednesday that they have agreed to make their software and hardware
broadly compatible.
The move is seen as a victory for Novell in its effort to halt the advances of Microsoft Corp.'s
Windows NT, an operating system that incorporates office networking technologies, a market that
Novell once dominated.
Directory programs that permit computers and computer users to
track the location of network resources have become
increasingly crucial as business networks have grown to include
tens of thousands of computers, printers, servers and disk
storage systems.
Cisco, the largest player in the market for network routers and
switches, has previously agreed to support Microsoft's Active
Directory service for office networks.
However, both Microsoft's Windows NT and its Active Directory software projects have suffered
lengthy delays and will not be available until sometime next year.
Novell has refined its Netware Directory Services, or NDS, software and has struck compatibility
agreements with both Lucent Technologies and Nortel, two other makers of computer networking
gear.
"Cisco's customers pushed very hard for a directory deal with Novell," said Novell chairman and
chief executive Eric Schmidt. "This permits both management and remote configuration of Cisco
routers and switches from our software."
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