Microsoft, Novell take fight to metadirectory front

Novell and Microsoft's simmering directory feud is set to heat up again as both prepare to release tools for building metadirectories.

The vendors have been working for the past seven months to refine their products for building unified directories, and the release of those products appears to be on a collision course.

The metadirectory is becoming an important concept in the enterprise, where the number of directories averages in the hundreds, according to The Burton Group, a consulting firm in Midvale, Utah. The metadirectory promises to join those directories under a single structure.

Novell will showcase its DirXML at the company's annual Brainshare conference in late March, and Microsoft soon after will release its Microsoft Metadirectory Services.

Both tools will let companies connect their directories into a logical whole that makes it easier to administer users and resources, support network applications and extranets, and provide security services.

"IT organizations are starting to ask, 'How do I integrate internal and external directories?' " says Jamie Lewis, president of The Burton Group. "As enterprises move forward, they will have to decide how they will use metadirectories now that this technology is part of the base directory for Novell and Microsoft."

Managing relationships

Network professionals say the directory is key for managing relationships between end users and resources internally, as well as on the Web with business partners and consumers.

"Those relationships have to be managed and it can only be done through translation of data between disparate directories and that is the metadirectory layer," says Don Bowen, the directory architect for a large heavy-equipment manufacturer in the Midwest.

Novell plans to answer the challenge in July when it ships DirXML. In the next few weeks, the product will enter its fourth beta cycle with some 50 testers, according to Paul Corriveau, a Novell product manager. Novell demonstrated DirXML at the recent Windows 2000 Conference & Expo by creating users in Novell Directory Service (NDS) that were automatically added to Active Directory and vice versa using a DirXML connector.

"This is the next generation of integration, but we see Active Directory as just another spoke in the NDS wheel," Corriveau says.

Microsoft will counter with Microsoft Metadirectory Services, which integrates Active Directory and Zoomit's Via metadirectory.

Microsoft bought Zoomit in July of last year for its Via technology, which has a rules engine that uses scripting to link directories around a central hub.

"We think the directory at the hub will be the one with the greatest amount of interoperability," says Peter Houston, group product manager for Active Directory. "DirXML is either heavyweight synchronization or lightweight metadirectory. What we have is simple synchronization and powerful metadirectory."

Via has been available from Microsoft, but only through consultants due to its complexity. Microsoft Metadirectory Services won't alleviate all that complexity immediately, but a version due in the next 12 to 14 months will, Houston says.

The Burton Group's Lewis says Microsoft's biggest challenge is to reduce the amount of support needed to run Via. He says the company also must add support for XML.

Regardless, both Novell and Microsoft are helping push the directory to a new level.

"The vendors realize they need to provide metadirectory services, and we are starting to see the fruits of their labor," Lewis says.