IBM Corp has announced shipment of Directory & Security server, one of its seven Software Servers launched in March (CI No 2,861) for OS/2 Warp later this month. The Directory & Security Server gives a wide area network a local net look and feel by enabling users to share resources across distributed networks within their organization and administrators to manage separate networks as if they were one. IBM says the server broadens the scope of OS/2 Warp server and LAN Server 4.0 because it enables thousands of users to access shared resources such as applications, files, printers and modems anywhere in the distributed network. For network administration, the user has the choice to administer all network domains from a central point, or to distribute administration locally. Administration can also be divided into functions such as printer or database administration. The directory server manages all system resources seamlessly, so the client does not know where a file is on the network. If the administrator moves the file, the are no user log-on scripts to update. The security server manages Kerberos authentication, access and encryption. For authentication, the client does not send a password directly to the server. It sends it to the security server, which passes it back as what IBM describes as a ticket, which is then passed to the server. This ticket expires frequently, to prevent anyone intercepting the user password. An access control list then manages which parts of the network resource a user can access. The Directory & Security Server is based on the Open Group’s Distributed Computing Environment version 1.1, which enables integration between multivendor systems. IBM says all systems and applications which support Distributed Computing Environment will work with the server. The Directory and Security Server enables incremental migration. It has a NetWare migration tool, enabling Novell Inc NetWare clients to migrate to Warp Server. It is easily installed by installing the integration feature on each network domain server, when the customer is ready. Bruce Bogart, IBM brand manager for the product, said an extra benefit is that the server provides an infrastructure for firms wishing to go to three -tier client server systems. Directory & Security Server is already available for AIX and OS/390, ships for OS/2 this month and will be available for Windows NT by the year-end. It costs $4,000. Additional directory and security services licenses will cost $1,700 and additional security services licenses will be available for $2,200.
