* A chat with Novell's chief strategist for directory services
Last week at Digital ID World in Denver, I had the opportunity to catch up with Justin Taylor, Novell’s chief strategist for directory services. It’s his job to identify new ways to use eDirectory and then convince users like you that those new ways are a good idea. For an example of how he does this, read the article “Technical Considerations for Choosing the Best Directory”, which he wrote for Novell’s ApNotes (see editorial link below).
In it, he asks the rhetorical question “Do you know what a directory is?” and replies:
“This question may seem condescending to many people, but to be honest a great many people will give you a great many answers to the question of what a directory is, what it does and what it is useful for. Some believe that directories are simply databases. Some think that directories are only useful for telephone white-page-type applications. Others would have you believe that all directories are the same and that all you need is a database with [Lightweight Directory Access Protocol] support.”
Taylor actually likes directories, not only for themselves but also for what they can do for you. When we spoke, he’d just gotten back from a meeting with the Star Alliance, a network and consortium of 15 airlines, including Air Canada, Air New Zealand, Lufthansa, SAS and United. He’d been showing the group how federated identity services, based on eDirectory, could easily allow loyal customers of one member airline to seamlessly (and automatically) connect to another member’s Web site, bringing all their information and preferences along with no effort on the user’s part.
Taylor’s eyes occasionally appeared to glow when he spoke of the wonders of the directory.
While we spoke, we both lamented how the world’s press seemed to latch on to any Linux news from Novell (no matter how trivial) while seeming to ignore news about Novell’s other products and technologies. But he was able to put a different spin on the SuSE acquisition. Taylor sees it not as the death of NetWare, but as a way to bring the benefits of eDirectory to a myriad of new users. Sure, eDirectory for Linux has been available for a while, but now it will ship with SuSE Linux as part of Open Enterprise Server.
Not only does it bring the directory to Linux, but it also enables all directory-based services and applications for that platform. As Taylor will be the first to admit, it’s not the directory itself that’s important but the services it enables. Linux management – network management, user management, server and client management – have never been particularly strong. Linux has been the “Wild West frontier” of computing. NetWare managers know, though, that ZENWorks can tame that Wild West.
When I mention that there are an awful lot of Linux users, administrators and managers out there, Taylor just smiles. “I’ve only been home for 36 hours in the past month,” he says. So many people to help, so little time to do it.
