[CentOS] RE: Using CentOS as a file server on a win2K domain-- nothing to do with alternatives

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Thu, 2005-07-28 at 21:58 -0700, Robert Hanson wrote:
> greetings,
> please excuse my extreme lack of specific knowledge on this subject, yet
> what are large companies using that are not using on the M$ server side?

Excluding Novell eDirectory (fka NDS) from considerations, _every_
Fortune 100 company I've been at either uses a NsDS based tree
(including Sun One) for their enterprise, and syncs ADS to/from it, or
segments with another LDAP solution (e.g., Netegrity, many others).  The
NsDS or other LDAP solution almost _always_ pre-dates ADS adoption,
simply because it was necessary to manage countless numbers of users and
systems.

Linux users who believe that ADS was the first directory service that
enterprises adopted are just music to Microsoft's marketing ears.  ;->

Especially since many enterprises have systems other than Microsoft.
DAP/LDAP synchronization was often already in-place _before_ ADS, be it
to/from Novell eDirectory, Sun One, NsDS itself or countless other
DAP/LDAP systems.

> ummmmm and specifically, what does Redhat use to accomplish these goals
> that you folks are talking about?

Red Hat _finally_ bought NsDS from AOL-Netscape last year.  Red Hat had
been trying to bring OpenLDAP up-to-snuff in years prior, much like
SuSE, as Red Hat _only_ does GPL solutions.

> i'm surprised that this specific question has not been asked before re:
> Redhat or other large companies that make their living via open source
> software or close proximity to it.

The enterprise world has been more about "open systems" (open standards)
than "open source."  The age old issue of how to avoid vendor lock-in.

Now that more and more "open source" solutions are becoming available --
such as NsDS now known as Fedora / Red Hat Directory Server -- more and
more enterprises will notice.

-- 
Bryan J. Smith                                     b.j.smith at ieee.org 
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