Bring us your use cases, and let us know if you would like to participate in an upcoming beta!

Recently I joined the Likewise Software team as vice president of Business Development.  One of the key reasons I joined the company was the increasing role I see Likewise playing in platform interoperability.  Take for instance one project–initially introduced a little over a year ago and more recently updated:  Likewise-CIFS client-side and server-side SMB/CIFS support, which  provides Microsoft Windows clients access to folders and files on Linux, Unix, and Mac computers.

We are seeing a broad array of use cases for the Likewise-CIFS server.  These include a Likewise-CIFS server virtual appliance, Likewise-CIFS as a NAS “head” on top of existing SAN devices, Likewise-CIFS as a front-end for cloud- based services such as Amazon S3, as well as supporting vendors looking to license our CIFS server capabilities as an OEM for a variety of other use cases (including HP and Data Domain).

Here are more details on a couple of use cases we’ve seen to date:

  • We’ve had several customers in the midst of replacing legacy Windows desktops with Linux desktops on a large scale (1,000++ Linux desktop deployments).  These customers are looking to use Likewise Enterprise to manage authentication and provisioning of users leveraging their existing investment in Active Directory (for most enterprises, AD works, it is typically tied to the HR systems, and administrators know how to use it effectively for supporting group policy, reporting, etc…).  In addition, they frequently ask if we know of a solution to support a common home directory across Linux, Windows, and Macs where they can point their users.  Supporting this with the Likewise-CIFS Server running on Linux married to Likewise Enterprise for ease of user administration makes sense.
  • Several OEM partners have begun embedding Likewise-CIFS in their products – an example would be HP StorageWorks.  The scalability, faster time to market, modular and tightly integrated code – as well as the ability to license under commercial terms – makes for a compelling option.

Do you have other potential use cases to consider beyond what we’ve detailed here?  We’d love to hear from you.