Novell is embedding Talarian's middleware into its network software range to enable applications to communicate across networks.

Talarian's Smartsocket middleware allows applications to talk to each other across Lans, Wans and the Internet.

Carl Ledbetter, Novell's senior vice president for business and corporate development, said: "Talarian's advanced middleware technology will bring new developer and application capabilities to Novell's Net Services platform, accelerating the development of directory enabled solutions used for messaging, finance and other areas of ebusiness."

Novell aims to integrate Smartsocket with a range of its products, including Novell Directory Services (NDS), so that applications can communicate according to policies set on NDS. For example, policies within NDS will determine where an application can be sent and by whom it can be viewed.

Smartsocket should appear in Novell's offerings by the middle of this year.