Novell and NEXOR Form Partnership to Help Secure eCommerce

Novell, Inc., the leading provider of Net services software, today announced a partnership with NEXOR, a provider of secure messaging and directory solutions, to integrate X.500 directories, a common directory standard for security, with Novell's industry leading NDS® eDirectory network infrastructure. NEXOR will develop technology to connect X.500 directories to eDirectory using Novell's DirXML integration software, allowing customers to leverage eDirectory to share and synchronize core corporate data within the enterprise and across the network to eBusiness partners. The new technology will solve a significant infrastructure challenge in the government, military and financial services sectors, which use X.500 directories extensively for transaction security.

The technology developed through this partnership will allow eDirectory to be fully interoperable with X.500 standard directories and to support the many applications that rely on the X.500 standard protocols including DAP, DSP, and DISP. By extending DirXML support to X.500 directories, Novell helps organizations solve the costly and time-consuming problem of updating and sharing data and information stored in their X.500 directories with other applications, databases and directories, both within the enterprise and in partner systems.

"While eDirectory has always been based on X.500 standards, support for the native X.500 protocols has been missing," said Paul Smart, vice president and general manager of Novell's Net Directory business. "We chose to partner with NEXOR because their X.500 directory expertise allows us to draw on their strength in order to bring a much needed product to market faster. Adding support for these key protocols completes the X.500 standard support in eDirectory allowing our customers to use the industry leading directory service for their standards-based applications."

"Directory interoperability is essential to an organization's implementation of critical security systems and services," said Ed Harrington, vice president of business development for NEXOR. "Our partnership with Novell provides their customers with the ability to interoperate with X.500 systems, which are popular worldwide for the management and repository of X.509 security certificates. This opens up new markets for both NEXOR and Novell."

eDirectory Delivers Foundation for Security Services
Directories have long been the foundation for managing user identities and devices across networks. They are increasingly becoming essential in eBusiness for network management and security services, giving companies control over who has access to what information, both within and outside the company. Novell has led the directory market for the last nine years with eDirectory, the industry's most reliable, scalable and secure directory service. It remains the only directory on the market today that works across mixed Windows NT*/2000, NetWare®, Solaris*, Linux*, Tru64 UNIX* and IBM AIX* environments, letting customers integrate their heterogeneous networks.

About DirXML
With intranets, extranets, and the Internet merging into a single, unified network, one Net, businesses must expand, manage, and secure their systems to meet the diversified needs of employees, partners and customers. DirXML reduces the complexity, administrative burden and cost of managing a one Net environment, providing a competitive advantage in eBusiness. DirXML's award-winning data-sharing and synchronization service revolutionizes data management within the enterprise and across the firewall by automatically distributing new and updated information across every designated directory and application on an enterprise network and business partner system.

Pricing and Availability
The X.500 driver will complement the growing list of directory and application drivers that are available from Novell. It is expected licenses for the DirXML driver will be available to customers in Q4 at $10 US per user through Novell, channel and consulting systems integrator partners.

About NEXOR
Founded in 1990, NEXOR is an international software house with offices in Nottingham, UK and Virginia, USA. NEXOR provides organizations with sophisticated methods for managing and securing their electronic communications. The company has a significant presence in military, federal and financial markets where secure and reliable communications are imperative. NEXOR's messaging and directory products combine an understanding of mission critical messaging environments with a history of providing leading edge technology. This industry and technical credibility is reflected in the current range of products which are enhanced by comprehensive support, consultancy and training services.

About Novell
Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL), is the leading provider of Net services software that delivers services to secure and power all types of networks the Internet, intranets, and extranets; wired to wireless; corporate and public across leading operating systems. Novell's Net services software provides the foundation for one Net a single global network that supports new applications and forms of business. Worldwide channel, consulting, education and technical support programs, along with strategic alliances, combine Novell Net services software with third-party products and services to form complete Net solutions.

For information on Novell's complete range of products and services, contact Novell's Customer Response Center at (888) 321-4CRC (4272), or visit Novell's Web site at http://www.novell.com. Press may access Novell announcements and company information on the World Wide Web at http://www.novell.com/pressroom. In addition, detailed comparisons between Novell products and competitive offerings from other vendors are available on the Web at http://www.novell.com/competitive.

Novell, NetWare and NDS are registered trademarks, and eDirectory and DirXML are trademarks of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries. *All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.