“Compaq has struck a deal with Novell to port Novell Directory
Services (NDS) to its Tru64 Unix variant in an apparent snub to
Microsoft and its proposed NDS rival, Active Directory.
The deal was announced last week by Enrico Pesatori, senior vice
president of enterprise services at Compaq, who made clear the
vendor’s intentions by stating that NDS will become the strategic
directory for its Unix operating system (OS).
Two weeks after Microsoft and Compaq admitted they will not port
the long-awaited Windows 2000 OS to the Alpha processor, Pesatori
said as part of the deal the two giants will back NDS on all Alpha
servers. Support will also be provided on Pro-Signia and Pro-Liant
machines. ‘… It’s all about having an infrastructure that will
grow with your business at internet speed without breaking the bank
or IT department,’ he said.”
“Compaq claimed the ability for NDS to work cross-platform was a
key selling point for customers with multiple operating systems,
including Windows NT and Linux. Mary McDowell, vice president
of the server division at Compaq, said: ‘Active Directory will
still be there for Windows centric users, but NDS is a more mature
structure.’ “