Novell Lands Cisco, Finally
By Lee Copeland
Las Vegas
1:10 PM EST Wed., Nov. 18, 1998
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Better late than never. Novell Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. have come to terms and Wednesday inked a pact whereby Novell Directory Services (NDS) will run on Cisco's routers and switches within the next 18 months.
The signed deal ends a long courtship, during which Novell wooed and won networking devices competitors Lucent Technologies Inc., Murray Hill, N.J., and Nortel Networks, Brampton, Ontario. Both Lucent and Nortel subsidiary, Bay Networks, expect to ship NDS-enabled products by the first half of next year.
Cisco, San Jose, Calif., will provide interoperability between its Assure network products, User Registration and Tracking and Network Registrar.
Cisco said it caved in to customer demand. And Novell couldn't be more pleased to land the networking vendor, which also is supporting the not-yet-available Active Directory from Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash.
"This new directory technology will be the basis for entirely new products, markets and means of doing business throughout the industry for years to come," said Christopher Stone, senior vice president of strategy for Novell, in a statement. "With NDS, Novell has long been the leader in directory technology," he said. "Demonstrating the reality of directory-enabled networking, as only Novell has, is a critical step in advancing that movement in the industry today."
Novell officials said given the overlap between its channels and those of its new networking device vendors, the partnerships should nonetheless offer indirect value to resellers.
"After you've made one sale to [a] customer, it's important that they keep reaping the benefits of that solution even after the initial installation," said Mike Simpson, director of marketing for Novell, Provo, Utah. "If that solution becomes stronger based on the recommendation that the reseller has made, they've developed a long-term partnership that transcends the lowest price on the next bid."
Novell will demonstrate a configuration of routers and switches from its new partners, Lucent, Nortel Networks, and Cisco at Comdex/Fall Wednesday. The demonstration uses Java and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), LDAP extensions, Common Information Model (CIM) for directories, and Novell's proposed Directory Enabled Networks (DEN) specification.
The new technology should enable remote changes and upgrades to routers, as well as give ISPs a means to bill, audit and provide services based on a user identity, Novell officials said.
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