You wouldn't expect much positive news for Novell to come out of last week's Directory Experts Conference. For the most part, you'd be right. Not that there was anything negative said about Novell; just that the company, and eDirectory, were rarely mentioned. But the mentions I did hear were encouraging for those who think eDirectory is far superior to Microsoft's directory product.
Apple Store announces Reserve And Pick Up program
11/07/09
For you pre-Thanksgiving shoppers, the Apple retail store on Friday announced a way to get a jump on your holiday list. The Reserve And Pick Up option will let you choose hardware products online and swing by your local store to collect them between December 15 and 24. Currently, the line-up of offerings includes iPods, iPhones, MacBooks, Mac Minis, iMacs, and Mac Pros. To make a reservation, you sign in with your Apple ID and select a store location. Payment is due only at the time of pick-up.
Q&A: isoHunt founder says P2P can help create post-piracy world
11/07/09
isoHunt's Gary Fung talks about how isoHunt has evaded legal trouble so far, why he holds out hope of working together with Hollywood and the music industry, and how he's launched a new P2P site for just that purpose.
Update fixes iPhone sync problem with Windows 7 for some
11/07/09
Gigabyte Technology issued a BIOS update on Friday that fixes a problem for some Windows 7 users who have been unable to sync their iPhones.
E-Mail article
|
|
Print article
|
|
Contact author
|
Reprint
|
AIM article
|
del.icio.us |
Reddit
|
Digg
|
Stumble
|
Slashdot It!
|
The featured speaker of the second day of the conference was John Enck, Gartner Group's research vice president. While he didn't come right out and say that eDirectory was superior, he made the point several times that "many people feel" that Active Directory isn't ready from prime time as THE enterprise directory while mentioning in the same breath that eDirectory (which he always mentioned by name) and "Sun's directory" (currently called Sun Java System Directory Server Enterprise Edition, but Enck couldn't seem to remember that. But, then, who can?) were well entrenched in the enterprise.
It's not much, but it is a ray of sunlight in a week that was mostly filled with rain for Novell (see the last issue of this newsletter).
Over the past 10 years, eDirectory has frequently been called the "crown jewels" of Novell's product line. It's one of the few products, not only within Novell but throughout the software industry, of which few people have a bad word to say. It's almost universally credited with beginning the movement to make the directory a platform for services in the network.
I've followed eDirectory since its beginnings as NDS - NetWare (later "Novell") Directory Services. Given the personnel churn and turnover turmoil at Novell (which I also alluded to last issue), the directory time has been remarkably stable. Sure, a few people have left - with a number of those surfacing in Redmond, of all places - but for the most part the same folks doing eDirectory five years ago are still doing it today.
Maybe it's time the company redirected its energies a bit and put the crown jewels on display once again.
Dave Kearns is a writer and consultant in Silicon Valley. He's written a number of books including the (sadly) now out of print "Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Networks." His musings can be found at Virtual Quill.
Kearns is the author of two Network World Newsletters: Windows Networking Strategies, and Identity Management. Comments about these newsletters should be sent to him at these respective addresses: windows@vquill.com, identity@vquill.com .
Kearns provides content services to network vendors: books, manuals, white papers, lectures and seminars, marketing, technical marketing and support documents. Virtual Quill provides "words to sell by..." Find out more by e-mail.
| Start a public discussion with other Network World users on this article (scroll up to send this article to a colleague). Log In | Register for an account (Why you should) |
Note: Register to have your user name appear; otherwise your comment will show up as "Anonymous."
*Anonymous comments will only appear once they are approved by the moderator.
Copyright 2008 Network World Inc.
Browse Newsletter categories: Branch Office Best Practices | Convergence | High Speed LANs | Identity Management | IT Careers and Training | IT Leadership | Linux | Messaging | Network Optimization | Network/Systems Management | New Data Center Strategies | Novell NetWare Tips | Optical Networking | Outsourcing | Security Strategies | Servers | Service Provider News Report | Small Business Technology | Storage in the Enterprise | Technology Executive | View from The Edge | Virus and Bug Patch Alert | VORTEX Digest | VPNs | Web Applications | Wide Area Networking | Windows Networking Strategies | Wireless in the Enterprise |
|
Does Verizon's Voyager stack up to the iPhone? |
5 IT skills that won't boost your salary [1,407]
Women 4 times more likely than men to cough up personal info [589]
Japan's 10 funniest tech-related commercials [Videos] [407]
Throwing away a promo CD is "unauthorized distribution"? [1,265]
Adults too quick to dismiss educational video games [682]
Attack of the iPhone clones [Slideshow] [578]
10 things IT needs to know about AJAX [1,258]
This Year's 25 Geekiest 25th Anniversaries [Slideshow] [409]
Network World on Twitter: Get our tweets and stay plugged in to networking news