Directory-Enabled Networks Standard Is Near..
Novell is part of the "Working Group" for DEN spec. Make of it what you will....
(03/02/98; 10:50 a.m. EST)
By Stuart Glascock, Computer Reseller News <Picture>
Microsoft, Cisco, and a wide-ranging group of networking vendors reached an agreement on a draft Directory Enabled Networks (DEN) specification that will be submitted to a standards body for final approval, sources said.
The agreement came after several representatives of the DEN Ad Hoc Working Group met last week in San Francisco. It will be forwarded for consideration by the Desktop Management Task Force (DMTF) standards body.
Microsoft and Cisco said they plan to announce the breakthrough on Monday, sources said. A spokesman for Microsoft declined to comment. However, a spokesman for the DMTF confirmed that the initiative is scheduled to come into the DMTF on Tuesday.
"We are working with the DEN, and we will be working with that initiative in evolving it and moving it forward," the DMTF spokesman said.
The DEN group has been working on a directory-services model and schema to facilitate interoperability of distributed applications and management tools. A new specification should bring relief to developers trying to write directory-enabled applications.
Products that may result from the DEN specification are not dependent on Microsoft's NT Server or Active Directory or Cisco's Internetwork Operating System products. Although there is opportunity with those products for vendors, they are not a requirement because it is open, sources said.
Microsoft and Cisco first announced the initiative to integrate directory services and networks at a Microsoft professional developers conference in September. The companies said a new specification for directory-enabled networks will extend the scope of the Cisco and Microsoft directory initiative to all network equipment vendors, directory service vendors, ISPs, and independent software vendors.
In November, the Ad Hoc group met at Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft with about 150 hardware and software vendors to preview a draft of the standard, which, theoretically, would allow different network vendors to interoperate. At the time, the initiative was supported by more than 20 companies, including 3Com, Ariel, Ascend Communications, Berkeley Networks, Cabletron, Compaq, CompuServe Network Services, Comtrol, ConXion, Digex, Digi International, Digital Equipment, ECI Telematics, Fore Systems, GridNet International, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, The Microsoft Network, Net Access, New Oak Communications, Packet Engines, RAScom, South Carolina SuperNet, and SwitchSoft Systems.
Many more vendors have signed on with the working group since November, including representatives of Bay Networks, Novell, and Netscape.
A directory-enabled network is "one where user profiles, applications, and network services are integrated through a common information model that stores network state and exposes network information. This information then enables bandwidth utilization to be optimized; it enables policy-based management and it provides a single point of administration of all network resources. All this serves to lower total cost of ownership and improves the services end users can rely on regardless of their physical location," according to Cisco's website. |
