overview

Directory services are a necessity for today's competitive enterprises. With a directory service, you have a customized, systematic way to unify identities, resources, devices and policies like e-mail addresses, applications, files, people or groups, automated systems, peripheral devices (such as printers) and other network components.

While it's vital to have a directory service, it also matters which directory service you choose. Far more than just an LDAP store, Novell eDirectory is an LDAP directory service, and forms the basis for many of the world's largest identity-management deployments. Since its debut more than ten years ago, eDirectory has been trusted for its scalability, compatibility, reliability, manageability and security.

scalability

You need an infrastructure that can grow along with your evolving business. Novell eDirectory meets the demands of large-scale, high-end directory deployments. Companies like CNN.com, Brasil Telecom and TransUnion rely on eDirectory as their foundation. In fact, eDirectory scales to 1 billion objects on a single server, so even the largest and most complex networks can have eDirectory grow alongside them without performance degradation.

compatibility

It's impractical to manually manage every machine and user in the company every day, all day. Novell eDirectory allows you to keep your environment in tact while allowing your users to remain productive with their individual environments. In addition to platform neutrality (it supports AIX*, HP-UX*, Linux*, NetWare®, Solaris* and Windows*), eDirectory supports a host of emerging industry standards and Web-services protocols: DSML, SOAP and XML, among others. The Open Group has given eDirectory LDAP certification, acknowledging its conformance to the LDAP standard. These types of support maximize the technology investments you've already made, freeing you from vendor lock-in.

reliability

Your organization could incur serious loss if it had a system crash that rendered information unrecoverable and applications unaccessible. But with eDirectory, the assurance of business continuity has never been stronger—it covers the entire reliability spectrum:

• Automated self-maintenance catches and corrects typical minor errors.
• Data distribution and replication offers continuous service.
• Multimaster/filtered/delta replication provides immediate service failover.
• Manual maintenance tools help you recover from more serious data errors without interrupting service.
• Two levels of disaster recovery—traditional and continuous backup and restoration capabilities—ensure the fastest possible return to business.

manageability

What do you do when your employees need to update their personal data or access a new application or workstation? Extremely flexible and manageable, Novell eDirectory provides secure, Web-based access to all administrative tools and functions:

• Browser-based server management and diagnostics
• Familiar monitoring interfaces
• Comprehensive repair tools (many of which work online)

Although eDirectory integrates a variety of network services and resources, its manageability features present them in a clear view, simplifying your routine processes and eliminating administrative redundancy.

security

Your resources merit the best protection. That's why Novell eDirectory safeguards your network with multiple layers of security. In addition to its state-of-the-art cryptography engine, eDirectory offers an unparalleled security architecture; it supports combinations of biometrics, smart cards, tokens, digital certificates and other methods. The swift, precise control administrators have over users and resources helps keep sensitive data secure by blocking unauthorized access in real-time.

Link your users and their access rights with corporate resources, devices and security policies. Make Novell eDirectory your identity foundation.