Nexor's New Gateway Solution Overcomes X.500 and LDAP Interoperability Issues
Nexor X.500/LDAP Gateway enables organizations to pull together disparate data repositories, cost effectively bridging the gap between X.500 and LDAP
November 13, 2003 - Nexor, a provider of high assurance messaging and directory solutions, has today announced the launch of its X.500/LDAP Gateway solution. Bridging the gap between X.500 directories, LDAP directories and the increasing number of LDAP-enabled applications, the Gateway has been designed to deliver cost-effective integration between an organization's data repositories.
"A typical organization may have multiple data repositories, comprising X.500 and LDAP directories and an increasing number of application-specific data repositories supporting an LDAP interface, such as SAP and PeopleSoft," explains Liz Thomas, Marketing Manager for Nexor. "Because of the lack of LDAP standards for replication and distribution, these LDAP repositories become disparate islands of data unable to communicate with each other, resulting in enormous inefficiencies in data processing across an enterprise. Additionally, where the enterprise already possesses an X.500 backbone, there is no way to integrate these vital repositories of information into the distributed X.500 directory service."
Nexor's X.500/LDAP Gateway provides an organization with a single interface for the access of data between applications and directories across both X.500 and LDAP environments. This also enables an organization to integrate new data repositories without having to reconfigure the directory clients. The Gateway is able to convert seamlessly between the two technologies converting DAP or DSP requests into LDAPv3 calls and vice versa. A typical example would be when an application makes a request for personal data held in remote multi-vendor LDAP directories.
The main advantage of the Nexor X.500/LDAP Gateway as an integration technology is its simplicity, low maintenance overhead, availability of information in real time and X.500 support. These features are delivered over both Solaris and Microsoft Windows platforms and result in significant cost savings when compared to the more expensive and heavyweight meta directory solutions.
"LDAP's success has been born out of its ease of use. Management and configuration are simpler, however there is often a requirement for the additional functionality provided by X.500 systems and data sources supporting applications such as HR and emails. This has meant that many organizations have built up data repositories that span multiple technologies," adds Thomas. "Using the Nexor X.500/LDAP Gateway organizations can quickly benefit from enterprise-wide interoperability between previously disparate systems."
The solution provides a single point of access for distributed PKI (public key infrastructures) deployments, delivering a consistent environment for accessing certificates and Certificate Revocation Lists across multiple applications.
Nexor's ongoing commitment to and compliance with open standards such as LDAP, was demonstrated in July 2003, when, along with Computer Associates, IBM and Novell, Nexor became one of the first industry vendors to deliver LDAP Certified solutions (as specified by the Open Group). Certification from The Open Group provides customers with assurance that products conform to open standards and will work together. This assurance enables market growth, and benefits both customers and vendors. Further details can be found at http://www.opengroup.org/dif/cert03/.
About Nexor
Nexor provides high assurance messaging and directory solutions to the government, military, finance and telecommunications markets. Founded in 1990, Nexor specialises in providing solutions in environments where it is absolutely critical that a message gets through, where the existing infrastructure is typically complex and where the need for performance, reliability and scalability are paramount. Nexor's range of messaging solutions provide backbone support, gateway connectivity, secure messaging systems, managed messaging platforms and directory systems. Nexor customers can be found in Europe, North America, Canada and Australia, covering a range of financial, commercial and military organizations. Customers include; The European Union's federal banks, including the Bank of England, Deutsche Bundesbank and the European Central Bank, Barclays Bank, BT, France Telecom, US Army, CIA, NSA, Canadian DoD and the Government of Canada all utilise Nexor technology, as do the UK MoD, GCHQ and the armed forces.
More information can be found at http://www.nexor.com