MaXware AS , was a provider of identity management,

virtual directory In computing, the term virtual directory has a couple of meanings. It may simply designate (for example in IIS) a folder which appears in a path but which is not actually a subfolder of the preceding folder in the path. However, this article will ...

and

federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

solutions. The company was located in Norway, the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States. Maxware AS was sold to

SAP AG Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a sepa ...

in May 2007. MaXware was best known for its two flagship products the Directory Synchronisation Engine (DSE) and Virtual Directory Server (MVD), which is designed specifically for deployment in high-volume, high-complexity environments. MaXware’s MVD acts as an

abstraction layer In computing, an abstraction layer or abstraction level is a way of hiding the working details of a subsystem. Examples of software models that use layers of abstraction include the OSI model for network protocols, OpenGL, and other graphics libra ...

, extracting identity and context information out of various application and data silos. By re-mapping the underlying sources and presenting the identity data in customized views for the needs of enterprise applications, MVD enabled authentication and fine-grained authorization for identity management and context-driven applications. MaXware’s global customer base included companies in the fields of

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

communications Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a r ...

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousa ...

and

healthcare Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

. Headquartered in

Trondheim, Norway Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

, MaXware had satellite offices in Freehold, NJ and

Ipswich, UK Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...

, and distribution channels throughout the world.

History

The history of the MaXware product range started at Norsk Data (ND). When ND discontinued NOTIS office software development in 1989. Former ND employees founded the company NOTIS AS. Simultaneously, Televerket (now Telenor) spun off its email and directories client work in another Norwegian startup, MaXware AS. In 1996, the two companies merged, and continued under the name Maxware to enforce the successful brand name. The product that is currently known as

SAP NetWeaver Identity Management SAP NetWeaver Identity Management is the Identity Management software suite SAP SE acquired in 2007 from MaXware. The latest release of the software is version 8.0, with Service Pack 5 having been released in July, 2017. SAP NetWeaver Identity ...

had its origins in 1995, as a project for Swedish Post, who needed a user management tool for its

x.500 X.500 is a series of computer networking standards covering electronic directory services. The X.500 series was developed by the ITU-T, Telecommunication Standardization Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T). ITU-T was former ...

Directory service In computing, a directory service or name service maps the names of network resources to their respective network addresses. It is a shared information infrastructure for locating, managing, administering and organizing everyday items and network r ...

. The

X.500 X.500 is a series of computer networking standards covering electronic directory services. The X.500 series was developed by the ITU-T, Telecommunication Standardization Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T). ITU-T was former ...

standard did not concern itself in how users were added or deleted from the directory. The management tool was called 'Add-On Service' (as in add on for a directory service), but soon changed the name to MDDM (MaXware Directory Data Manager). Later it was again renamed to DSE (Data Synchronisation Engine). The Virtual Directory Server (MVD) had a similar evolution. Some people from the MaXware development team from 1995 are still working with the product at SAP Labs in

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

. MaXware AS an

Independent software vendor An independent software vendor (ISV), also known as a software publisher, is an organization specializing in making and selling software, as opposed to computer hardware, designed for mass or niche markets. This is in contrast to in-house software, ...

company, started in 1998, as a joint venture between

EDB Business Partner EDB Business Partner ASA, trading as EDB ( no, Elektronisk Databehandling) was a Norway, Norwegian information technology company that supplied many services relating to computing, including operation, outsourcing and online banking. The company w ...

and founder Tore Wold under the name MaXware International AS (MIAS). MIAS acquired all messaging products and the development team from EDB MaXware AS in 2001. In 2002, the MIAS management team together with its employees completed a

Management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of 1 ...

of the remaining shares from EDB MaXware AS. MIAS changed its name to MaXware AS in 2004. MaXware AS soon became a globally recognised innovator in developing identity management solutions. During this period the company established its subsidiaries in US, United Kingdom and Australia.

Series A round A series A round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...

funding was received from Viking venture and Four Seasons Venture. The VC companies were tasked to develop a successful exit strategy, when the Idm Market started to consolidate. MaXware AS was acquired by

in 2007. The products live on as

and continue to be used by some of the largest corporations and governmental agencies in the world. In 2014,

merged the Trondheim office with SAP Labs in Sofia, Bulgaria, and closed the Norway office, marking the end of 20+ years of Identity Management development in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

Products and awards

MaXware is known for its

X.400 X.400 is a suite of ITU-T Recommendations that defines the ITU-T Message Handling System (MHS). At one time, the designers of X.400 were expecting it to be the predominant form of email, but this role has been taken by the SMTP-based Internet e-m ...

secure messaging solutions and Identity Management solutions: * Mailmax.400 - Mailmax.400 was a very popular X.400 messaging software It is still sold and supported by AddOnMail * MaXware Directory Explorer (MDE) - One of the first freeware LDAP browsers * MaXware Directory Synchronisation Engine (DSE) - MaXware’s entry level meta directory product, which was re-sold in the UK by

Nexor Nexor Limited is a privately held company based in Nottingham, providing product and services to safeguard government, defence and critical national infrastructure computer systems. It was originally known as X-Tel Services Limited. History Ne ...

. * MaXware Identity Center (MIC) - MaXware’s flagship product for corporate Identity Integration using Oracle and SQL Server RDBMS * MaXware Virtual Directory (MVD) - MaXware’s

flagship product Award: PKI Challenge (pkiC) The reference implementation was developed and supplied for the pki Challenge by Utimaco, and the Directory used was produced and supplied by MaXware.

References

{{Authority control Companies based in Trondheim Business software companies Identity management systems