Last week, I talked about Microsoft's new HailStorm initiative and wondered when the Redmond behemoth would begin to realize the power of the directory - and talk about it. One reader thought there might be a more sinister motive behind the omission. We all know that there are those out there who paint Microsoft as the evil empire and feel Bill Gates simply wants to rule the world.
People know what they're working on, they know what their closest friends are working on.
But often, fairly intelligent people are totally ignorant of what other parts of their enterprise are doing - there's simply too much information to keep it all in the forefront of your thoughts. So it just may be that the Microsoft Passport people, who've been working on that technology for a number of years without realizing the directory implications, may have no knowledge of what the Microsoft Active Directory people are doing. Likewise, the Microsoft Metadirectory services group may know of the existence of Active Directory but not its inner workings or even its direction. Ignorance of the big picture has lost more battles than any conspiracy. Virtual Quill is a writing agency serving the computer and networking industries.