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Another, more important goal may lie in directory integration. IBM Corp., Netscape Communications Corp., Novell, Sun and other vendors have agreed on an API--the Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI)--from which developers can write applications that tap into their disparate directories. "If a router knows where 'directory central' is, it won't care where the directory server is," Bressler says. Implementations of JNDI that let administrators specify which directory to use (transparently to the user or developer) were under way in late May.

What may emerge is a kind of directory traffic cop. Imagine an application server that relies on the JNDI API to direct traffic to any one of the multiple directories anywhere on today's network--such as DNS, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), Novell Directory Services (NDS)/Novell bindery, Network Information Service (NIS), NIS+ or X.500. Developers conceivably would be more inclined to write to JNDI than to APIs now espoused by smaller metadirectory vendors, and directory integration could occur in a more scalable, distributed manner than the byzantine method presented by X.500.

Sanjay Sinha, Solaris Server marketing manager, and Bressler emphasize that such discussions are purely theoretical, but Sinha does say that Sun has "no choice" when it comes to directory integration on Solaris or its specialized Netra application servers. "It's absolutely critical," he says, because Sun is moving "into customer bases with multiple directory services, and customers want to integrate their existing investment."

The notion of directory traffic cops and application servers, however, doesn't mean Sun will pull away from its agreement with Novell to integrate NDS in its general-purpose Solaris. Sinha says Sun plans to ship NDS on Solar is later this year and is committed to porting NetWare file and print services to the OS. The goal is to provide consolidated Web, database, and file and print services in a single, easy-to-manage, general-purpose Solaris box--especially for smaller sites. A decision had yet to be made in late May on whether Sun would attach an incremental charge for the NDS/replication bundle.

Of course, there's one emerging directory of particular import that Sun's scheme doesn't directly address--Microsoft's ActiveDirectory. Sinha says Microsoft's support for LDAP will allow basic integration with ActiveDirectory. It remains to be seen whether Microsoft--as Bressler predicts--ultimately will support a riche r interface in the form of JNDI. Microsoft's agreement with Cisco to port ActiveDirectory to Unix could also prove beneficial. Sinha says, however, that though Sun wants to ensure that all de jure directories are supported, it considers ActiveDirectory "completely proprietary" and "Sun's strategy is not to embed any proprietary standards."