Messaging and Directory Server software used around the world in the Government, Military, Aviation and Commercial sectors.
Background
Like the Aviation industry, NATO has based its specifications for Military Messaging systems and Military Directories on existing standards - X.400 for messaging and X.500 for directories. However, like the aviation industry, NATO publishes its own extensions to these standards to which each member state is expected to conform in order to ensure interoperability. These extensions are:
- STANAG 4406 (STANAG is the NATO abbreviation for Standardisation Agreement), which is based on the X.400 specification but with some changes and constraints to make it suitable for deployment in a Military Message Handling System (MMHS).
- ACP (Allied Communication Publication) 133 which defines schema extentions to the X.500 protocol to allow an X.500 directory to be used as a military directory.
Why Isode?
Isode has developed its X.400 and X.500 products to ensure conformance to military standards. As a result our products support all of the relevant military profiles including STANAG 4406 and ACP 133 and we pay significant attention to security features, which are critical for military applications.
Where do Isode's products fit into a solution?
As with many of the other markest we address, Isode does not sell directly into military customers, instead we work closely with our Military Partners to ensure the successful delivery of solutions to customers. For this market we provide:
- M-Switch X.400: A high performance X.400 MMTA (Military Message Transfer Agent), suitable for high volume backbone operation.
- M-Store X.400: A MM-MS (Military Messaging Message Store) supporting client access using the X.400 P7 protocol, and accepting messages from an MMTA using X.400 P3.
- M-Vault X.500: Whilst M-Vault X.500 is also used as a general purpose directory product, many of it's capabilities were specifically designed for military deployment.
What is the current state of the market?
The nature of the military market precludes us from talking openly about many of our customers. Isode products are, however, regularly on display at the yearly CWID (Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration) demonstration. CWID is a US-led scenario based exercise intended to test the exchange of command and control or other critical information between the command and control, communication and computer systems of participating nations (usually NATO nations plus other invited participants).
