LAS VEGAS - IBM this week is expected to unveil software for building massive directories that can store and serve up the data needed to support security and policy-management schemes across multivendor networks.
The company's unnamed offering, which IBM plans to announce at NetWorld+Interop 99, will serve as a directory of directories, presenting a consolidated view of information stored in assorted directories across a network. The company's metadirectory product will use the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol to tap into information repositories, such as Novell Directory Services, and directories associated with specific applications, such as Lotus Domino.
Directories are considered to be crucial components of companies' network management and security strategies. Network executives can store everything from end-user profiles to digital certificates to phone numbers in directories and then can use that information when defining quality-of-service parameters and network access rights. A metadirectory can be used to update the individual directories scattered across a network when data changes and to synchronize data across separate directories.
Metadirectories are needed by large enterprises in particular because such companies each average more than 100 separate directories, says Jeff Jaffe, general manager of the IBM SecureWay division, formerly called the eNetworking Division. Consolidating data from separate directories can make it easier to find and manage network resources, he says.
IBM Global Services already works with users to design customized metadirectories. Customers will be able to configure the new directory product themselves.
Jaffe says IBM's metadirectory stands apart from others because of the scalability and professional services the company offers.
IBM's software runs atop the company's DB2 database, which runs on platforms ranging from Windows NT servers to S/390 mainframes and can store up to 11 terabytes of data. The metadirectory takes advantage of DB2's join engine to make connections between data in different directories and to consolidate such data.
IBM's metadirectory could prove useful to customers heavily involved in electronic commerce, says Michael Marquardt president at Internet Operations Center, a Detroit ISP and outsourcing firm that caters to the car industry. Such an information repository could be key to supporting network security policies, he says.
The technology might fit well in Marquardt's network, which contains separate directories for AIX, Solaris and other machines.
"The whole directory puzzle is a big deal," he says. "People maintain a variety of directories, and the Holy Grail is to have them integrated."
Pricing for the product was not available. o
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