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SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 11, 2006 – The
Open Group, a vendor- and technology-neutral consortium focused
on open standards and global interoperability within and
between enterprises, today announced that The Apache Software
Foundation is the latest to embrace the Lightweight Directory
Access Protocol (LDAP) standard and receive The Open Group
certification for The Apache Software Foundation's Directory
Server (ApacheDS 1.0) as Compliant to the LDAP Certified
V2 Product Standard. This LDAP certification is part
of The Open Brand, a register of Open Group certified products
which can be associated with and used in relation to IT systems
that have been registered with The Open Group as being fully
conformant to one or more specific product standards.
The Open Group LDAP Certified program was defined by The
Open Group’s Directory Interoperability Forum, now
part of the Identity Management Forum. This certification
signifies guaranteed conformance of directory servers to
Version 3 of LDAP. The certification program benefits
both customers and vendors by providing assurance of conformance
and interoperability and reducing the costs and risks of
getting certified. Under the program, vendors guarantee conformance
to product standards. This guarantee ensures that products
conform to a specification, remain conformant throughout
the life of the product’s registration, and any non-conformance
will be promptly fixed.
ApacheDS 1.0 was recently certified
by The Open Group as compliant to the LDAP Certified V2 product
standard and is the first certified Open Source implementation
of the LDAP product standard. Apache's product is implemented
in the Java™ 2 Standard Edition 5.0 software environment. This
certification for The Apache Software Foundation’s
Directory Server adds to the LDAP certified directory implementations
available for the key open source environments, including
Red Hat Enterprise Linux® and SUSE® Linux Enterprise
Server; for the standard UNIX® system environments AIX™,
HP-UX®, and Solaris™; and for vendor-specific environments,
Microsoft Windows® and NetWare®.
“ApacheDS
1.0 is a significant release in several respects, but most
importantly it has been certified by the Open Group as a
compliant LDAP V3 server,” said Alex
Karasulu, officer and vice president of The Apache Directory,
The Apache Software Foundation. “Thanks to The
Open Group, the Apache Directory Team was able to certify
ApacheDS 1.0. We believe this certification will prove
attractive to our users while setting our project apart from
other non-certified LDAP projects in the market."
“This certification and the fact that LDAP certified
directory implementations are now in multiple platforms demonstrates
the growing value of LDAP as the standard directory access
protocol, while increasing the choice of certified implementations
available to customers,” said Dr. Chris Harding, forum
director for SOA and semantic interoperability, The Open
Group. “The Open Group is pleased to see ongoing
interest in certification for this proven, stable standard,
with The Apache Software Foundation being the latest to achieve
certification and join the ranks of other leading IT solution
providers.”
“LDAP conformance is about business enablement. Organizations
are striving to provide better services to their customers
in such a way that is flexible and improves business agility,” said
Eric Ross, director of product management, CA. “Open
standards facilitates this by allowing organizations to easily
integrate directory applications using off the shelf products.”
“Directories are critical infrastructure components. Novell
welcomes the addition of the Apache Directory Server to the
family of certified LDAP directories,” said Alan Clark,
strategic advisor for industry initiatives and standards,
Office of the CTO, Linux and Platforms Group, Novell. “As
a longtime leader in directory technology, Novell played
a key role in helping to establish the LDAP certification
and was quick to certify Novell eDirectory's LDAP server. The
development of standards-based LDAP directory servers like
the Apache Directory Server will help deliver flexibility
for customers, ensuring compatibility with other open systems.”
The Open Group is a vendor-neutral and technology-neutral
consortium, which drives the creation of Boundaryless Information
Flow™ that will enable access to integrated information
within and between enterprises based on open standards
and global interoperability. The Open Group works with
customers, suppliers, consortia and other standard bodies.
Its role is to capture, understand and address current
and emerging requirements, establish policies and share
best practices; to facilitate interoperability, develop
consensus, and evolve and integrate specifications and
open source technologies; to offer a comprehensive set
of services to enhance the operational efficiency of consortia;
and to operate the industry’s premier certification
service. Further information on The Open Group can be found
at http://www.opengroup.org.
Note to Editors: Boundaryless Information
Flow and TOGAF are trademarks of The Open Group. UNIX
is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the US and
other countries.
All other company, brand and product names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
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