Tim Howes
Directory Server Architect Netscape Communications
Howes Makes LDAP Do Ya!
X .500 is a beautiful dream, LDAP is living it," says Tim Howes. As chair of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) working group for the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), Howes has been living LDAP for several years. As the architect and primary implementor of the LDAP at University of Michigan, Howes knows what it takes to build a real-world directory service. The University of Michigan system services more than 5 million queries per week on more than 100,000 university listings. Since he
finished his doctorate at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in April with a dissertation on (what else?) LDAP and joined Netscape Communications Corp. as the directory server architect, Howes also is living and breathing the implementation of LDAP. Under Howes' guidance, LDAP will find its way into a slew of Netscape products, including the Directory Server, Enterprise Server, News Server, Mail Server and Navigator, giving administrators a single place from which to manage users and giving users a single place to store user-preference information.
The industry's recent embrace of LDAP makes it the choice directory-access
protocol, helping to locate resources and people on the vast Internet, as well as combining the disparate directories used in corporate networks. More than 40 companies have signed on with Netscape to support LDAP, promising a more easily navigable Internet and intranets.
H
owes performs a careful balancing act. With one hand, he must ensure the development of open standards for LDAP that will benefit the Internet community; with the other, he must give Netscape a competitive edge. With LDAP, as with other standards before it, if this balancing act is not performed with the utmost grace, the tradition of the IETF could come to a head-on collision with the crush of commercial interest.
With the commercial world moving faster than the standards bodies, Howes says, "the IETF needs to streamline processes so things don't take quite so long to be standardized." He cites HTTP's and HTML's nonstandard status as an example. "It's a difficult balancing act. You have to move quickly so it's still relevant," he says.
Moving swiftly so popular solutions become relevant standards will be Howes' challenge as he and the
IETF working group define version 3 of LDAP. Into the next version will go a referral mechanism supporting replication that goes beyond the current master/slave model; improved support for international users; and several security enhancements, including X.509 strong authentication and an extension of Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL).
Contribution Past 12 Months:Architect and primary implementor of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) at the University of Michigan, and designed LDAP API.
Next 12 Months: Back up the hype of LDAP, and deliver the product to achieve directory integration with other Netscape products.
Millennium Forecast: The infrastructure needs to become more secure at a lower level, including access of ce
rtificates.
Millennium Disturbance: Will the IETF still be a relevant body? The IETF used to lead the vendors, now we see the vendors lead the IETF. Car: Honda Prelude
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