About the Authors

Timothy A. Howes is cofounder, CTO, and Executive Vice President of Development at Opsware Inc., the leading provider of data center automation software. Prior to cofounding Opsware, Dr. Howes was Vice President of Technology for America Online, Inc., where he worked on technology strategy, acquisitions, and investments. Before that, he was a Netscape Fellow, Chief Technology Officer of Netscape's Server Products division, and chief architect of several Netscape server products. Dr. Howes coinvented the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), the Internet standard for directories. He has coauthored two books on directories and has written or cowritten more than 20 Internet Requests For Comments (RFCs). Dr. Howes is a former member of the Internet Architecture Board and former cochair of the LDAP Extensions, ASID, and IDS working groups in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Before joining Netscape, Dr. Howes was a researcher and National Science Foundation project director at the University of Michigan. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Michigan.

Mark C. Smith is the chief architect for directory products at Netscape Communications Corporation, an AOL Time Warner company. Mark is responsible for the technical evolution of Netscape Directory Server and several other AOL products and services. He was previously a driving force behind the University of Michigan's LDAP implementation and a key designer of the university's directory service. Mark is coauthor of LDAP: Programming Directory-Enabled Applications with Lightweight Directory Access Protocol and has written many RFCs and Internet Drafts. He has a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from the University of Michigan. Mark lives in Saline, Michigan, with his wife, Kathy; his daughter , Christina; and his son, Thomas.

Gordon S. Good is a senior software engineer at Opsware, Inc., a provider of IT automation software. Previously Gordon was a senior developer at Netscape Communications Corporation, where he led the directory server replication development team. Prior to joining Netscape, he was instrumental in the development of the University of Michigan's LDAP implementation and in designing and running the university's Web and e-mail services. Gordon has also written several Internet Drafts and RFCs on directories.