Novell and Industry Partners Meet To Develop Open Standard for Internet Printing
Networking Leader Helps Advance Internet Standards at IETF-Chartered Meetings
PROVO, Utah -- April 9, 1997 -- Novell, Inc. continues to play a major role in
advancing open Internet standards by collaborating with industry leaders to develop the Internet Print
Protocol (IPP), a fully defined industry standard for printing across intranets and the Internet. Novell
helped drive the creation of a formal working group within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) that
is meeting for the first time this week to discuss the new printing standard. Developed initially by Novell,
IBM, Sun Microsystems, and Xerox, the IPP will make printing in heterogeneous network environments
much easier and standardize remote printing.
"The IPP is a significant piece of Novell's overall strategy to help customers make the transition to open
Internet standards," said Glenn Ricart, chief technology officer of Novell. "By working together with
industry leaders including IBM, Sun, and Xerox, we are bringing structure to the Internet to make it a
serious business tool."
Through this new working group, Novell and leading printer and software vendors will establish a set of
industry-standard protocols for submission and control of print jobs over the Internet and across enterprise
intranets. Companies participating in these efforts include Adobe, Canon, Dataproducts, Dazel, Digital,
Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Kyocera, Lexmark, Microsoft, Netscape, QMS, Ricoh, Sharp, Sun,
Tektronix and Xerox. The working group will submit the IPP to the IETF later this year for acceptance as
an approved IETF standard. Novell will support these protocols in future versions of its networking
products.
"A universal Internet printing standard would reduce our overall cost for network printing," said Mike
Hicks, network systems engineer for the City of Tucson, Ariz. "We currently spend a significant amount of
time configuring workstations to allow users to print to remote locations. In addition, our employees must
print, then fax documents to the desired destination. An open standard would alleviate much of this work
and should lower the overall cost of printers."
Novell's Leadership
Novell set the standard for high-quality printing with its market-leading network operating system. Through
Novell Directory Services (NDS), network administrators realize an unparalleled ability to manage printers
and printer set-up. By assisting in the creation of IPP, Novell demonstrates its commitment to extending
this leadership to the Internet.
The IPP standard will alleviate a significant amount of time administrators now spend configuring user
workstations to facilitate printing to remote sites, lowering overall network administration costs. With IPP,
end users will be able to find any printer on the Internet, install it and print the desired document very
easily. Users will receive a status report verifying successful completion of the job.
IPP can eliminate the need for faxing documents by providing a cost-effective and reliable way to print
documents such as invoices, schedules and forms directly to remote printers. Instead of the costly and
arduous process of printing, then faxing documents to branch offices, hotels and other remote locations,
users will be able to print documents directly to printers anywhere on the Internet reliably and quickly,
using common Internet connections.
The IPP Project
IPP is the result of several companies' efforts. Last fall, Novell and Xerox submitted a draft of a jointly
developed Internet printing protocol, Lightweight Directory Printing Application (LDPA), to the IETF for
review. In a parallel effort, IBM started working on a proposal for Internet printing using Web technology,
known as HyperText Printing Protocol (HTPP). During subsequent meetings among leading printer
vendors and manufacturers, it was decided to merge the Novell, IBM and Xerox efforts into the IPP
project. The first IPP discussion group was held at the December 1996 IETF meeting, with participation
from over 20 printer-related companies. This week's first meeting of the working group is taking place in
Memphis, Tennessee.
About IETF
The IETF is a large international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers
concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet. IETF is
open to any interested individual. The actual technical work of the IETF is done in its working groups,
which are organized by topic into several areas (e.g. routing, network management, security, etc.). Further
information about the IETF can be accessed on the World Wide Web at http://www.ietf.cnri.reston.va.us/home.html.
About Novell
Founded in 1983, Novell (NASDAQ:NOVL) is the world's leading provider of network software. The
company offers a wide range of network solutions for distributed network, Internet, intranet and small-
business markets. Novell education and technical support programs are the most comprehensive in the
network computing industry. Information about Novell's complete range of products and services can be
accessed on the World Wide Web at http://www.novell.com.
Novell is a registered trademark of Novell, Inc. Novell Directory Services (NDS) is a trademark of Novell,
Inc. All other company or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
owners.
Press Contacts:
Gayle Uchida
Novell, Inc.
Phone: (408) 577-6625
Chimene White
Cunningham Communication, Inc.
Phone: (415) 858-3751
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