Novell Inc is gradually building up the big names to endorse its NDS Novell Directory Services, and now the biggest of the lot, IBM Corp, has decided to license NDS and NetWare file and print services for its RS/6000 range. IBM says it will also work on a version of NDS to run on System 390 mainframes, and will make that available next year. It will offer the additions free to customers, it says, through LDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol ports. The idea is to enable personal computer users to connect up more easily and more securely with IBM Unix and mainframe servers. IBM joins Fujitsu Ltd, Hewlett-Packard Co, the Santa Cruz Operation Inc and Sun Microsystems Inc in the NDS supporters club, and most of those companies should have NDS up and running on their various platforms by year-end, according to Novell. If NDS gains wide enough support, the Directory Services will provide a measure of consistency between the directory and security resources for application development across mainframes, Unix systems and local area networks. Novell says the deal means it will have achieved its objective, set out last November (CI No 3,042) of delivering NDS on 70% to 80% of all currently shipping Unix systems by the end of 1997. In the meantime of course, Microsoft Corp will have shipped its own set of Directory Services, bundled in with the next version of Windows NT.
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