IBM Dips into Directory with New Server, Services

Building on the foundation provided by its June 25th acquisition of Metamerge, IBM Wednesday unleashed new directory offerings, including IBM Directory Server 4.1, Metadirectory and Directory Professional Services.

Designed to run across all leading operating systems for Intel and zSeries servers, the offerings are intended to provide enterprises with the software infrastructure necessary to identify enterprise resources, control access to networked systems, and securely deploy Web services.

Directory Server 4.1, available for free download now, is based on the LDAP , or Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, which is intended to make it possible for almost any application running on virtually any computer platform to obtain directory information, such as email addresses and public keys. It is built on IBM's DB2, and allows applications to securely identify network users and resources, while providing directory functions that link user data so that security applications have simplified access to the data.

"This directory server solution, combined with our Directory and Metadirectory Professional Services, is ideal for companies that need to build the software infrastructure required to adopt Web services technologies. Enterprises can now integrate their directories to identify users across all software platforms," said Don O'Toole, director of Business Integration Marketing at IBM. "IBM's directory offering also can play a key role in enabling such strategic initiatives as the deployment of Linux systems and grid computing."

On the services end, Metadirectory and Directory Professional Services are two new offerings which IBM said will help customers with the analysis, design and deployment of enterprise directory and metadirectory solutions. Metadirectory software aggregates directory information that may be stored in directories or databases provided by multiple software vendors and running on a variety of operating systems.