Novell announced at the Networld+Interop show last week that it
would be offering eDirectory software free to commercial software
developers, in a bid to broaden the product's scope.
Novell claims to have almost 140 million users of eDirectory
worldwide and Gary Ashton, chief of staff of Net directory services
at Novell said the company's goal was to expand the user base by
tempting software developers to embed eDirectory into their
applications. "Every network-aware application needs a directory,"
he claimed.
Ashton said a software company specialising in HR systems could use
eDirectory as a central store of user profiles. The HR application
could then direct information relevant to the user's role in the
workplace.
Toyota is already employing eDirectory within application software,
said Ashton. Rather than storing user profiles, the car
manufacturer has built a system that uses eDirectory to store
profiles of cars.
Ashton claimed users could easily track the various components used
in a given Toyota model by looking up the vehicle's details within
eDirectory.
Cliff Saran