For example, Cabletron Systems Inc. downplays Active Directory in favor of NDS and its years of use on corporate networks. It has not been engineered to be replicated and distributed well. According to Levi, major corporations have more trust in Novell's directory product. Observers note also that Novell emphasizes a heterogeneous hardware solution. Before IS teams can use directories to deliver QoS applications or policy-based administration throughout the network, many companies will have to consolidate the network directories.
Directories exist as a patchwork of products that come as part of various applications.
For QoS to be delivered, directories must be part of the network backbone, rather than disconnected pieces attached to specific applications. People have just started to envision a directory for thousands of users that does everything. However, some observers say that users will eventually prefer to have a master directory tied to a NOS, which will be used to administer users on the system. Villars and Rainge also doubt that standards such as LDAP3 and those slated for DEN will solve the problem. Their report notes that purported standards solutions in the past, such as X.500, have largely failed to solve the problem of disparate directory infrastructures.