Novell Directory Services (NDS) to be available to Java developers
In a move to support Java in the intranet space, Novell Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. announced a cross-licensing agreement that will make Novell Directory Services (NDS) available to Java developers and Sun’s Java WorkShop development environment available to Novell IntranetWare developers.
Under the terms of the agreement, Sun will license NDS to be included in its Solaris operating environment, while Novell will license Java WorkShop for use in its IntranetWare platform and WebNFS for use in its NetWare NFS product.
IntranetWare, which became available last month, is an open-standards version of Novell’s flagship NetWare product designed for use on corporate intranets.
The two companies hope the alliance will allow developers to create intranet applications based on Java that incorporate NDS capabilities such as accessing, managing, and securing network information, said Janpieter Scheerder, president of SunSoft.
In addition, the incorporation of Sun’s WebNFS technology into Novell’s NetWare NFS will allow any WebNFS-enabled browser to access information on NetWare NFS servers over an intranet. “This is a significant step forward for network computing, and when Sun says network, we mean the intranet,” Scheerder said.
For Sun, the alliance means Java developers will have access to another naming convention — one used by more than 17 million users in the networked PC world, Scheerder said.
“NDS will help bring millions of Novell users into the Solaris world,” he said.
Sun hasn’t decided how it will sell and distribute the NDS technology in the future, but plans at least to incorporate it into its Solaris operating system early next year, Scheerder said.
No changes will need to be made to the Java WorkShop environment in order to allow developers to access NDS, since the Java language was built to incorporate new technologies over time, Scheerder said.
Novell, on the other hand, will benefit from opening up NDS to the Java development world and gain access to the huge installed base of Sun’s Solaris servers, said Denice Gibson, senior vice president of Internet products at Novell. IntranetWare’s developers will also have access to a high-level Java toolkit, she said. Novell will make Java WorkShop available in the first quarter of 1997.
“Most PCs are networked using Novell technologies and most servers run on Sun technologies,” Gibson said. “Novell is trying to make NDS the metaplatform across the board.”
Novell and Sun are natural partners to promote the Java environment to developers, creating applications for all networked PCs, she said.
Plus, many corporations that are looking to install an intranet are holding off because of uncertainty over which development language is the best base for intranet applications, Gibson said. “We are a hundred percent sure this language is Java” she said.
Most analysts are positive about the alliance, but not surprised.
“This announcement promotes Java, and every big company needs to be promoting Java with its products,” said Mary Hubley, an analyst at DataPro Information Services. “While the announcement isn’t earth-shattering, it is important in that it reinforces how important Java is in the industry.”
“While both companies benefit in their own way — an expansive channel for SunSoft’s Java WorkShop and a toolkit that will help establish [Novell’s] IntranetWare and NDS as intranet players — it’s the developer who is the “ultimate winner,” said Evan Quinn, research director at International Data Corp.
Novell will also license Sun’s just-in-time (JIT) compiler to incorporate with its IntranetWare Software Development Kit for the Java platform by mid 1997, Gibson said. This should make the execution of Java application faster within the IntrenetWare environment.
The agreement is by no means exclusive, since Sun already has licensed other directory services for the Solaris platform, and Novell has partnered with Hewlett-Packard Co., Santa Cruz Operations Inc., and Microsoft for Windows NT, Gibson said.
The two companies will also jointly market the Java products and work on developing Java APIs that suit both companies’ needs.
Novell gives OS developers NDS source
In a separate announcement, Novell said that it will distribute NDS source code, royalty free, to operating-systems developers in an effort to promote NDS as the de facto standard for directory services across a heterogeneous network. This move will help boost the company’s marketshare if vendors take the bait, according to an industry analyst.
“This is an initiative that is fundamental to the entire future of Novell,” said Tom Kucharvy of Summit Strategies Inc. in Boston. “The question is whether it will be sufficient to develop an installed base and the type of momentum around it, or whether so much of the interest has drifted away that customers will yawn.”
Novell can only perpetuate NetWare’s existence by establishing NDS as a broad market standard, but Novell needs partners to be successful, Kucharvy said. Novell’s partners to-date are Hewlett-Packard Co. and The Santa Cruz Operation, who agreed to integrate NDS directly into their operating systems.
With this announcement, Novell may be able to attract vendors who will develop low-cost add-ons that will allow their own systems to integrate into Novell environments more seamlessly.
“The question becomes whether there is enough value in what Novell wants to sell around this installed base of razors [or NDS licenses] to get people to buy the razorblades,” or applications such as GroupWise and third-party add-ons, Kucharvy said.
While other vendors are eyeing the market potential of selling directories as servers or embedding them in proprietary operating systems, Novell plans to seed the market with NDS for directory-based applications, a Novell statement said.
“Our business strategy is to make NDS the universally adopted directory by operating system vendors, ISVs (independent software vendors) and ISPs (Internet service providers),” Tom Arthur, vice president and general manager of Novell’s Internet Infrastructure Division, explained in an interview. “It’s important to get our business model out there and make the industry understand that Novell is embracing open standards and completely embracing the Microsoft product line, as well,” he added.
Novell said it would offer a royalty-free distribution license for a single-server binary version of NDS on Windows NT, with early release set for later this year and a final version due out by October 1997.
