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Novell Extends Novell Directory Services to the Internet Support for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Will Enable Users to Access NDS Over the Internet OREM, Utah -- April 22, 1996 -- Novell, Inc. today announced the extension of its industry-standard Novell Directory Services® (NDS®) to fully support the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), an emerging directory access standard for the Internet. For organizations using NDS, LDAP support will enable LDAP-compliant browsers and applications to find and use the resources contained in their Novell directory over Internet connections. In addition, LDAP support will give developers greater flexibility in creating applications that leverage NDS by enabling them to write to the LDAP standard for directory access as well as to Novell's directory APIs."Novell's support for LDAP is one more way we are making networks smarter, by enabling people and applications to easily access the information and intelligence stored in NDS over the Internet and intranets," said Vic Langford, senior vice president of Novell's Internet/Intranet Services Business Unit. "With more than 15 million users, NDS has the largest acceptance and installed base of any directory service worldwide. As the first major vendor to open its directory to the Internet, we are making it easier for developers and users to leverage the NDS resources of that huge installed base. Novell's commitment to directory interoperability and to industry standards such as LDAP furthers our strategy to make NDS the standard global directory for the Internet and intranets."
Benefits of LDAP Support in NDS A proposed Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard protocol, LDAP is a "lighter" version of the X.500 Directory Access Protocol (DAP), which was originally created for UNIX environments. LDAP was pioneered by the University of Michigan, made possible in part through a grant provided by the National Science Foundation. LDAP was developed for the DOS, Windows, Macintosh and Unix platforms and runs over TCP/IP. It provides the base functionality of DAP while easing the development and accessibility of directories for intranets and the Internet. LDAP is emerging as the standard protocol for directory access on the Internet, enabling any LDAP-aware client application or browser to access any LDAP-compliant directory, such as NDS."We're a large NetWare 4 customer and are excited that we will be able to leverage our X.500 directory and NDS via LDAP-aware applications," says Kitty Bridges, Director of Product Development and Deployment for the University of Michigan's Information Technology Division. "The more ubiquitous LDAP becomes, the more useful it is, both to U-M and other Internet enterprises such as Novell." NDS support for LDAP offers a number of benefits to users, organizations and developers:
"The emergence of LDAP as an Internet standard is significant because it can enable both directory interoperability and directory-enabled application development," said Jamie Lewis, president of The Burton Group. "By supporting LDAP, Novell is opening NDS and extending it to support interoperability on the Internet and intranets as well as LDAP applications. That's good for Novell, good for its customers and good for the industry." "We are very pleased that Novell will support LDAP, which we believe is emerging as the industry-standard for directory access over the Internet," said David Goodman, senior consultant at Lotus Development Corporation. "With our continuing support for LDAP and X.500 in Lotus communications products, Novell's support for LDAP in NDS means our products will now interoperate more easily. With LDAP support, Novell gives us a window into NDS. This is a win-win situation for Lotus and Novell customers."
Benefits of NDS Novell's NDS is a distributed database that presents all network users and resources as objects that can be located, viewed and managed from a single, central location. NDS has become the de facto industry directory standard by incorporating the key features required in a global directory service:
Since its initial release in 1993, Novell has extended NDS beyond other directories by providing many advanced capabilities, including:
"We use Novell Directory Services to provide security and access control for our intranetworking offer, AT&T Netware Connect Service," said Tom Evslin, vice president of AT&T WorldNet Service. "We believe the addition of an LDAP interface to NDS along with browser support for LDAP will help customers move more quickly to the open standards they want while leveraging the investment they have in existing directories and applications."
Availability Novell demonstrated NDS support for LDAP at its BrainShare technical conference in March and at the NetWorld+Interop tradeshow in early April. Novell will make NDS support for LDAP generally available in the fall of 1996.Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL), is the world's leading networking software provider. Novell software provides the infrastructure for a networked world, enabling customers to connect with other people and the information they need, anytime and anyplace. Novell partners with other technology and market leaders to help customers make networks part of their everyday lives. Novell and NetWare are registered trademarks and GroupWise, NAL, NDS, NetWare Directory Services, Novell Application Launcher and Novell Directory Services are trademarks of Novell, Inc. All other registered trademarks and trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
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