Novell tie-up set to fend off MS threat

Lucent alliance will result in bundling of NDS and Cajun P550.

Novell has formed an alliance with Lucent in a bid to fight off the threat of Microsoft growing closer to Cisco.

As part of the terms of the alliance, Novell's flagship product, NDS directory services, will be bundled with Lucent's Cajun P550 Switch, a key competitor to Cisco's high-end range. The companies will work together on updated specifications for directory-enabled networks, which they will submit to the desktop management taskforce for incorporation in its standard.

The switch was demonstrated last week at the Networld+Interop show in Atlanta, with its additional directory capabilities. The functionality will be available to customers in the first half of next year.

Karyn Mashima, vice president of enterprise networks at Lucent, said: 'Directory-enabled networking brings applications and devices together to simplify network management and lets customers set priorities on the network according to business needs.'

Both sides hinted that the partnership could expand into other directory-related areas of development and marketing. It was widely seen by analysts as a strike back at Microsoft's integration of its directory services, incorporated in NT 5, with Cisco's routers and its Internetwork Operating System (IOS).

One observer said: 'Lucent is a good partner, but it's only second best to Cisco in terms of the Novell strategy.'

NDS has a significant headstart over NT in the directory field and Novell has already signed up a slew of licensees, aiming to make its technology ubiquitous before Microsoft's can get established.

Meanwhile, Cisco said at the show that it would enhance IOS by integrating it with embedded NT services. These will offload some heavy duty processing from the central network hardware to improve router performance - vital on the internet and intranets. However, Cisco denied it was planning to replace IOS with NT eventually, although analysts have consistently speculated that the switch could be on the horizon.

NA LAUNCHES VIRUS SCAN 4

Network Associates has integrated its security flagship product with technology from former rival Dr Solomon's, which it acquired in June.

Released at Networld+Interop last week, Network Associates' Virus Scan 4 claims to be able to detect 22,000 viruses, 'hostile applets' and email infections from the desktop. It has been updated to recognise security threats such as Back Orifice. It merges the capabilities of the McAfee and Dr Solomon's products, both of which now belong to NA.

Virus Scan will work with NA's Autoimmune technology, designed to detect and cure viruses on corporate networks. The company outlined a roadmap for this key product set, promising the main element, Autoimmune Server, in the second quarter of next year. This will cut the time taken to neutralise viruses through automatic detection features.

NA has also announced Sniffer Pro 98 Portable Analysis Suite, which can manage Lans and Wans simultaneously and is designed to work across legacy networks such as SNA, as well as Intel/Cisco/Microsoft architectures.

Also on the security front, Hewlett Packard updated Praesidium Virtual Vault - its secure version of Unix - and Authorisation Server, which controls access to corporate networks and data. The two products, both targeted at Web environments, are now more tightly integrated, although they can still be bought separately.

Virtual Vault is designed to protect Web servers and applications, working together with firewalls and other security tools. Authorisation Server uses passwords, hardware tokens, Kerberos tickets and digital certificates to grant or deny access to data based on business rules.