MaXware AS , was a provider of

identity management Identity and access management (IAM or IdAM) or Identity management (IdM), is a framework of policies and technologies to ensure that the right users (that are part of the ecosystem connected to or within an enterprise) have the appropriate acce ...

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 called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

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 the 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 sep ...

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 Deposit account, 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 m ...

finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

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 protect ...

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

communications Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...

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 the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer ...

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and Interest (emotion), interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but it is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have deve ...

and

healthcare Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

. Headquartered in

Trondheim, Norway Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populou ...

, MaXware had satellite offices in Freehold, NJ and Ipswich, UK, 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, witService Pack SP08having been released in November, 2020. SAP NetWeaver Identi ...

had its origins in 1995, as a project for Swedish Post, who needed a user management tool for its x.500

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 ...

. The X.500 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 ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...

. 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, in contrast to computer hardware, designed for mass or niche markets. This is in contrast to in-house softwa ...

company, started in 1998, as a joint venture between

EDB Business Partner EDB Business Partner ASA, trading as EDB () was a Norwegian information technology company that supplied many services relating to computing, including operation, outsourcing and online banking. The company was headquartered in Oslo and listed on ...

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 buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...

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

solutions. During this period the company established its subsidiaries in US, United Kingdom and Australia.

Series A round A series A is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. It can be followed by the word round, investment or financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in excha ...

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 countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

Products and awards

MaXware is known for its X.400 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 products and services to safeguard government, defence and critical national infrastructure computer systems. It was originally known as X-Tel Services Limited. History N ...

. * 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