Cisco Products to Interoperate with Novell Directory Services; Cisco Is Committed To Multi-Directory Interoperability Through Standards.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 18, 1998--Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) today announced its commitment to interoperability between CiscoAssure Policy Networking products and Novell Directory Services(R) (NDS) and other directories.

Continuing its commitment to interoperability through standards, Cisco intends to drive key standards for directory-enabled network application interoperability in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Desktop Management Task Force (DMTF).

Cisco has led the industry with its vision of directories as the basis for the next major advance in network administration and policy-based network services. Cisco is committed to Microsoft's Active Directory(R) as its core directory service and is continuing to work with Microsoft to deliver enhanced directory solutions that take advantage of each others' products. Cisco is building directory-enabled network applications on a standards-based Active Directory client that allows Cisco network applications to work with multiple directories.

"Cisco is committed to supporting its customers' needs and preserving their freedom of choice by delivering full interoperability between Cisco solutions and standards-based directory services," said Charles Giancarlo, senior vice president, global alliances, Cisco Systems. "Support for NDS by CiscoAssure is a demonstration of that commitment."

The CiscoAssure Policy Networking initiative enables business users and applications to use the embedded intelligence of Cisco IOS(R) software to map business requirements to networking policies that secure access to network resources, control quality of service and manage overall network performance. CiscoAssure provides interoperation with the Lightweight Directory Application Protocol (LDAP)-based directories.

Two CiscoAssure products, Cisco Network Registrar IP Registration Services and User Registration and Tracking service, will provide interoperable directory support. Cisco Network Registrar currently works with NDS. User Registration and Tracking service, which currently provides network services based on user login to Microsoft Windows NT, will work with NDS in the first half of 1999. CiscoAssure products will use the standards-based Active Directory client to operate in multi-directory environments.

Another Cisco management system, Cisco Service Management (CSM) is a modular, integrated suite of management solutions that enable service providers to quickly plan, provision, monitor and bill for a diverse set of differentiated network services such as virtual private networks (VPNs), Internet telephony and electronic commerce. CSM modules use the standards-based Active Directory client to operate in multi-directory environments.

Cisco is working on key standards for interoperability of directory-based network services. Cisco led the initiative to define the data model and schema for directory-based resource management through support for Directory Enabled Networks (DEN), now in the DMTF. Cisco is working in the IETF to define extensions to the LDAP protocol, and is engaged in efforts for multi-directory replication through the LDAP Duplication Update Protocol (LDUP) working group in the IETF.

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