* Novell is also active in the open standards arena
Novell spinmeister Rod Anderson reminded me last week that Novell, in addition to being active in the open source movement, is also active in the open standards arena. Specifically, he noted Novell’s work with the Liberty Alliance, OASIS and The Open Group. He could also have mention the IETF as well as a myriad of other standards organizations. But these four are important because each, in its own way, is trying to lead the way on identity management issues and identity management is one of the twin pillars (the other is Linux) on which Novell is trying to build its future.
Novell spinmeister Rod Anderson (who got caught by the company’s staff reduction late last week ) reminded me last week that Novell, in addition to being active in the open source movement, is also active in the open standards arena. Specifically, he noted Novell’s work with the Liberty Alliance, OASIS and The Open Group. He could also have mention the IETF as well as a myriad of other standards organizations. But these four are important because each, in its own way, is trying to lead the way on identity management issues and identity management is one of the twin pillars (the other is Linux) on which Novell is trying to build its future.
Novell has a presence on all of the IETF’s working groups covering Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). Just to cover its bases, though, the company is also represented on the Directory Services Markup Language (DSML) technical committee at OASIS, which many call the “XML version of LDAP.” The Open Group hosts the Identity Management Forum and works to certify interoperability with various standards such as LDAP. The Liberty Alliance (Novell was a founding member) is the primary organization (working through OASIS) for building federated identity technologies.
There are some companies (Microsoft comes to mind) that profess to support open standards but which in reality, practice the philosophy called “embrace and extend” which means taking an open standard and tweaking it in such a way that no one else can use it. There are companies (such as IBM) that participate in both true open standards (such as the Liberty Alliance) as well as closed standards (such as the Microsoft created Web Services Initiative). But Novell shines brightly as not only supporting true open standards but also working to ensure it stays open while continuing to grow and develop in order to remain relevant to our technological needs.
Even the venerable NetWare operating system was moved from the closed communication protocol of IPX/SPX to the open protocol of TCP/IP when already a fully mature technology because that was the right thing to do.
Openness and cooperation with others in the technological arena have been hallmarks of Novell since the early days no matter what other missteps it may have made along the way. We can only hope the next generation of Novell management remembers this, and the benefits derived from that openness and cooperation.
