Cisco and Microsoft Announce Open Review Process For Directory-Enabled Networks Initiative

Cisco and Microsoft Announce Open Review Process For Directory-Enabled Networks Initiative

REDMOND, Wash., March 2, 1998 — Cisco Systems Inc. and Microsoft Corp. today announced further progress toward establishment of the Directory-Enabled Networks (DEN) initiative as an industry standard. The Directory-Enabled Networks Ad Hoc Working Group (DEN AHWG) last week endorsed submission of DEN specification to the Desktop Management Task Force (DMTF) standards body. The DEN initiative is intended to integrate the management of servers and network services as well as enable a new generation of networked applications.

The DEN specification will be submitted to the DMTF by the DEN Customer Advisory Group. The recently formed group, which includes customers such as Charles Schwab & Company Inc., Sprint Corp., Texaco Inc. and the University of Washington, now guides the content of the DEN specification and the timing of its submission as a standard.

The DEN initiative, launched in September 1997 by Cisco Systems and Microsoft, has rapidly progressed through two reviews, with significant input from the Ad Hoc Working Group comprised of over 300 industry and customer advocates.

“The work that has already been done with the DEN specification fits very well within the Common Information Model (CIM) that is under development by the DMTF. We look forward to incorporating this work as soon as possible,” said Ray Williams of Tivoli Systems Inc., chairman of the CIM Technology Development Committee.

The DMTF is developing the CIM specification, which will define the rules and categories for an information model that provides a common way to describe and share management information enterprisewide.

“DEN from the start has been an open, customer-driven initiative,” said David Jones, director of marketing in Cisco’s network and service management business unit. “It was vital to maintain that focus by giving the Customer Advisory Group final say in the specification process.”

“With the specification review process moving to the DMTF, vendors and customers have an open forum and process to enable standardization of the DEN specification,” said Mike Nash, director of marketing, Windows NT® Server group at Microsoft. “This is a huge win for customers. For the first time, they will be able to benefit from a unified model for integrating users, applications and network services.”

There were approximately 67 companies represented at the DEN Working Group meeting last week, including the following: 3COM Corp.; ActiveLane; Arrowpoint Communications Inc.; Bay Networks; Berkeley Networks; Cabletron Systems; Cisco Systems; Compuserve Network Services; Cylink Corp.; Hewlett-Packard Co., OpenView Division; IBM; ISOCOR; Lucent Technologies; MetaInfo Inc.; Microsoft; Netscape Communications; Orchestream; Process Software Corp.; Quadritek Systems Inc.; RedCreek Communications Inc.; Siemens-Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG; SwitchSoft Systems Inc.; TIBCO Software; TimeStep Corp.; and Ukiah Software Inc.

The DEN Specification

The DEN initiative was launched in September 1997 by Cisco and Microsoft to promote consistent modeling of network elements and services across heterogeneous directories. DEN is the first specification to integrate knowledge about user profiles, applications and network services. These efforts provide developers with a platform to begin developing a new class of intelligent networked applications immediately that will offer users a full range of services no matter where they are – in the office, working at home or traveling on business. The DEN specification and related documents are freely available on the Web at http://www.universe.digex.net/~murchiso/den/ .

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq “CSCO”) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. News and information are available at http://www.cisco.com/ .

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

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