Microsoft unbundles 'Active Directory'

Microsoft is expanding capability of its directory technology to allow customers to more easily add new applications to their network.

The directory technology essentially provides a network manager with a central database to store and manage information about users, computer systems and networking devices. Microsoft competes against Novell and Sun Microsystems in the directory-server software market.

Microsoft's "Active Directory" is included in Windows 2000. A forthcoming version of the operating system, called the Windows .Net Server, will include a new capability called Active Directory in Application Mode

With the application mode, companies can manage access to software that runs on Windows-based networks much easier, said Jackson Shaw, Microsoft's Active Directory product manager. For example, a business can use the directory technology for one specific function, such as a portal Web site for a department, without having to store that information in the main corporate directory, he said.

News source: ZDNet