Novell Ships Metadirectory; Partners for Single Sign-On.

By Siobhan Kennedy

In its bid to make Novell Directory Services (NDS) a repository for all enterprise data, Novell Corp will today announce the availability of Virtual Replica - metadirectory technology that enables NDS to store and share data with other directories on the network. The Provo, Utah networking giant will also team up with a series of application vendors to announce the availability of single sign-on for those companies' applications on NDS networks. With the average enterprise currently running and managing around ten different directory services for different applications, the aim is to make Novell's NDS the super directory, the central hub into which all administrative and user data is fed, thereby reducing management headaches for administrators and giving users a common entry point into their enterprise applications and services.

The news comes just a couple of days after Microsoft Corp announced it had acquired Canadian firm, Zoomit Corp for its metadirectory product, Via. Redmond says it will integrate the technology into its forthcoming directory software, Active Directory, due to be shipped as part of Windows 2000 in October. Like Novell, Microsoft says the move is part of its strategy to put Active Directory "at the center of enterprise identity management." Although Novell itself admits that metadirectories aren't the enterprise data management panacea - Novell's Michael Simpson even likened the technology to "putting a band aid over a bullet wound" - its nonetheless significant that Novell's getting its metadirectory offering out into the market first. The more users it can persuade to implement its software, and start populating it with data from other directories, the less room there is for Microsoft to move in and steal its thunder.

Keeping Microsoft at bay is another reason why Novell is tripping over itself to get application vendors to commit to NDS. And its hard work seems to be paying off. Later this week, Novell will announce a series of partnerships with vendors to offer single sign on for their software on NDS networks. Novell acquired the technology through its acquisition of Netoria Inc last month. It's not yet known who Novell will partner with but it's likely to be vendors that supply email applications, such as Lotus Notes, or database or HR software that all require separate passwords to gain access. Rather than the users' data being fragmented over lots of different directories, he or she will only have to enter one password and NDS will manage the access rights from one central point. Although there are lots of companies offering similar technologies, according to Jamie Lewis, president of networking analyst firm The Burton Group - at whose conference Novell is making the announcements this week - one problem with the other products is that they are hard to implement.

"At the moment, a variety of vendors are going at it from a variety of perspectives," he says, "IBM with a network management perspective, Novell from the network operating system side and Computer Associates from the enterprise data center model." But Lewis says the uptake of NDS and the integration of the directory with Novell's single sign on technology, could give the vendor an edge over its competitors. "Enabling single sign-on is part of the larger enterprise destiny and directories are key over the long term to solving this problem," Lewis says, "so if Novell is addressing this, and providing the necessary tools for multi- vendor integration, then that's a significant step." Lewis said no one company was currently dominating the directory market, but that Novell was "clearly a leader in the space." He said the sector would experience consolidation over the next one to three years as vendors like Microsoft, IBM and Novell "enter into a frenzy of activity to announce, buy and build a variety of directories and associated services."