CNN Interactive Selects NDS eDirectory
Articles and Tips: article
01 Feb 2000
Novell's NDS eDirectory has now become part of the infrastructure of one of the world's most heavily visited media sites. CNN Interactive, the Web site of one of the world's top news-gathering organizations, is using eDirectory to support the delivery of personalized content to its millions of worldwide users.
The Novell software enables CNN Interactive to store the interests and preferences of visitors to its Web site and then use these "digital profiles" to automatically provide a Web experience personalized for every visitor.
As part of CNN Interactive's "Web farm" infrastructure, NDS eDirectory runs on Novell's NetWare 5 intelligent network server platform. This highly scalable Novell e-business solution gives CNN Interactive the ability to store digital profiles on millions of Web visitors.
In addition, CNN Interactive uses the Novell software to conveniently manage this critical information from a central Java-based console.
Cross-Platform Capabilities Based on open Internet standards, the cross-platform Novell software also runs on Sun Solaris, Windows NT, and soon Linux platforms, giving e-business like CNN Interactive the option of hosting their directory solution in their server environment of choice. This cross-platform capability also gives CNN Interactive the option of mixing different server environments in the same NDS structure for suitability to task.
"We use NDS to make the Internet experience personal and more rewarding for our users," said Monty Mullig, vice president of CNN Internet Technologies. "NDS eDirectory allows us to tailor content and services to the individual needs of our users. We deliver nearly seven billion page views to our Web sites each year, and NDS is able to provide the performance to sustain this high volume of traffic."
CNN Interactive is responsible for the award-winning news site CNN.com, as well as eight other Web sites and the distribution of CNN news content via other platforms such as PageNet pagers and iMagic's PowerPhones. The CNN Web sites, which include CNN.com, CNNfn.com and CNNSI.com, are among the world's leading news and information Web sites.
The CNN Web sites average more than 556 million page impressions a month and have served more than six billion page impressions from January through November 1999.
Proven Reliability Of NDS eDirectory In addition to its proven reliability and scalable performance, NDS eDirectory provides e-businesses like CNN Interactive with flexible data management capabilities not available from other LDAP directories or relational database solutions. The hierarchical structure of NDS eDirectory makes it fast and easy for CNN Interactive to analyze and modify how they store user information.
In addition, NDS eDirectory allows CNN Interactive to automatically replicate user information across multiple servers for greater accessibility, reliability and ease of data management.
"CNN Interactive demonstrates how the world's most popular Web sites are using the power of directory-based solutions to provide users with a more personal and productive experience," said Dave Shirk, Novell vice president for product marketing. "At heavily visited Web destinations like CNN Interactive, NDS eDirectory provides the basis for trusted relationships that are a key to brand loyalty and business growth on the Web."
Novell's Consulting Services and Pre-Sales Systems Engineering worked with CNN Interactive to design, plan, and implement the integration of NDS eDirectory with Web servers. Novell Consulting specializes in the rapid deployment of directory solutions that reduce network management costs and speed the integration of diverse systems in large customer networks, including e-businesses such as portals, service providers, media outlets and online retailers.
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* Originally published in Novell AppNotes
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