Novell outlines aggressive NDS campaign

Novell has released eDirectory and Novell Directory Services (NDS) Corporate Edition that allows companies and their partner organisations to access each other's corporate directory.

Many users will also be able to get eDirectory free as a part of Novell's aggressive attempt to populate the market with NDS against intense competition from Microsoft's yet-to-be-released Active Directory.

The products bundle together NDS support for Novell Netware, Windows NT and Sun Solaris in a single package. Support for Linux, Compaq Tru64 and Microsoft Windows 2000 will appear in the second half of next year.

eDirectory is aimed at providing directory services to Internet portals, while NDS Corporate Edition supports network resources inside firewalls.

Novell will give a free 100-user licence of NDS eDirectory to customers who purchase Microsoft Windows 2000 Server within 90 days of its release, or Sun Solaris 7 before 31 January, 2000.

Novell will also give away a 100 user licence copy of eDirectory to independent software developers, while customers using a competing Ldap directory can get matching user licenses for NDS eDirectory for free, but pay for maintenance charges.