Cisco's Internetwork Operating System has an LDAP client that can access a variety of directory services, including Active Directory. The Cisco products that now include Active Directory are CiscoWorks 2000 User Registration Tool, Cisco Network Registrar and Network Services for Active Directory. Active Directory support sometime this year are Cisco's Policy Manager and Architecture for Voice, Video and Data. The one area where Cisco is falling behind is in developing directory services for Unix. Cisco rolled out iPlanet internally, rather than Active Directory, because it needed the technology quickly, and Active Directory was not available.
Cisco is just one of several companies supporting multiple directories.
The DSML 1.0 standard is being reviewed by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, the World Wide Web Consortium and the Microsoft-led BizTalk organization. DSML 1.0 defines schema for data in directories. He declined to give a timetable for delivering the technology to customers.