IBM Garners Support For Its LDAP Directory

IBM said today that seven software makers have agreed to support its eNetwork LDAP Directory.

The directory is part of a suite of software servers that IBM is marketing under the eNetwork brand, as components that companies need to build electronic business infrastructures. The directory server supports the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, a simplified standard for accessing the information stored in directories.

"E-business and E-business growth are a fundamental tenet of our overall systems strategy at IBM," said Phyllis Byrne, VP of distributed systems services. "We have been working on methods and technologies to simplify the deployment of E-business solutions. One of the fundamental technologies for that [deployment] is the directory.

The seven companies that said they will support IBM's LDAP directory are Allot Communications, which makes network tools and management applications; Dascom, supplier of intranet security software; enCommerce Inc., maker of Web access-management software; Netegrity, which makes Web access-control software and other software for Web business; Persistent Systems Private Ltd., supplier of products and services for the integration of LDAP directories and relational-database engines; Security Dynamics, maker of Web-authentication technology; and Triangulum Software, which makes specialty software that provides directory alternatives to users of DCE.

IBM also said it plans to integrate the LDAP directory into its middleware products, including WebSphere, Windows NT Suites, and its Tivoli network-management software.