An article in the Boston Globe on directory Services, NDS, and Digitalme:
New meaning to directory services
Novell banks on software to personalize communications devices
By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff, 05/21/99
There's always something annoying about working at someone else's
computer. Everything's wrong: the software settings, the bookmarked Web
pages, everything. Because it's not your computer. But suppose you could
transform it into your computer, just by pressing a few keys? Suppose
you could personalize any communications device -- computers, cell
phones -- to suit your personal needs?
Someday you will, as an obscure but vital technology called directory
services begins to take root in the electronic world. Directories are
powerful repositories of personal information stored in computer
databases. For years, corporations have used them to customize their
internal computer networks. Now directories are moving into the Internet
and telecommunications markets.
Directories are shaping up as one of the key technologies of the wired
world. "In the next five years, this is going to be a major
battleground," says network software analyst Richard Villars of
International Data Corp. in Framingham. Microsoft Corp., IBM Corp.,
Oracle Inc., and Sun Microsystems Corp. are all taking their shots at
the market. But for now the leader is Novell Inc., a company written off
as doomed just a few years ago.
Novell was born as a computer networking company, and at one point
Novell software ran nearly 70 percent of corporate computer networks.
But in the early 1990s, the firm lost its way in a series of
ill-conceived efforts to challenge Microsoft's dominance of word
processing and spreadsheet software.
But since former Sun Microsystems engineer Eric Schmidt took over in
1997, the company has returned to solid profitability, with $102 million
in earnings in fiscal 1998.
Schmidt ordered a relentless focus on Internet-compatible networking.
Last year the company finally introduced a version of its bellwether
NetWare operating system that is fully compatible with Internet
protocols.
But the firm is betting its future on Novell Directory Services, or
NDS. Novell has long sold directory services to corporate America. But
in a world where millions of us use Internet browsers and cell phones,
directories may soon become vital for all kinds of electronic
communications.
Say the word "directory" to most people and they think of a telephone
book. Fair enough. Imagine your own listing in the White Pages. There's
a name, a street address, and a telephone number.
Now imagine a bigger listing -- a lot bigger. In fact, a listing as
big as you want it to be, with a vast array of information about you. At
work, your company's directory might include your cell phone number,
your e-mail address, the department you work in, the company computer
systems you're permitted to use, and the ones you're locked out of.
The directory is a company's "common repository of critical
information," according to Steve Adelman, Novell's vice president of
corporate development. And by using that information, the directory can
assign exactly the right services to each employee. A clerk logs on to
the directory, and is given access to the lowest level of the company
computer network, while a top executive gets access to everything. One
worker can download the latest word processing software; another gets an
advanced engineering program.
The worker can go to any other computer in the company, log on, and
get the same services he'd find on his own machine. "It's not by what
desk you're sitting at," says Adelman. "It's by the person and their
authority inside the net."
That's net with a small n, as in a corporation's internal networks.
Many huge firms have hundreds or thousands of computer networks
scattered around the world. Novell's NDS makes it possible to manage
workers' access to all these networks from a single database. Currently
50 million people in large organizations use NDS.
But Novell wants to extend the technology far beyond corporate
America, into the basic infrastructure of all telecommunications
systems.
Each of us might one day have our own lengthy listing in a digital
directory, stored on a highly secure computer run by somebody we trust
-- the phone company, say, or a bank. The directory could contain huge
amounts of information about you -- your credit card numbers, your
favorite Internet sites, your membership in an Internet discussion
group, your shoe size. You would decide what information the directory
would contain, and whether to share it with others.
Sam DiStasio, Novell's director of NDS product marketing, calls this
concept a "digital persona," an electronic biography of yourself that
you can share in whole or in part.
Sit down at any Internet-connected computer, anywhere on earth, and
log on. Instantly, all your Web page bookmarks appear on the browser,
because you've told the directory your favorite sites. Your e-mail
starts to scroll across the screen, because the directory knows all five
of your e-mail addresses.
You order flowers for your spouse without typing in your credit card
number, because your directory already knows it. Just send it a command,
and it shares the number with the on-line florist.
Then someone calls your office, but your cell phone rings. Your
directory is linked to your Internet-based calendar program, so it knows
that you're traveling. When somebody dials your home or office phone
number, the directory instantly routes the calls to the right phone --
the one in your pocket.
Hardly any of these services are available, but they will be in the
near future if Novell has anything to say about it. The company has
announced a new service called digitalme, which will offer the bare
beginnings of these services. digitalme, which will be made available
free over the Internet later this year, will let a user store a range of
personal information on a Novell NDS directory, then provide that
information selectively to his favorite Web sites.
Novell won't make any money from digitalme, but the company is betting
the product will generate new demand for Novell's NDS software and
accessories. Active Directory, a rival directory product from Microsoft,
won't even come to market until late this year.
By winning mindshare early, Novell is aiming to take a permanent lead
in directories, emerge from Microsoft's shadow, and reassert its role as
an industry leader. "We have a unique opportunity right now," says
Novell's chief information officer Shari Anderson. "We have created an
opportunity, a window, to win. And we want to win."
boston.com
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