Abstract: The present invention provides an improved method and system for unobtrusively achieving secure cross-platform access in a heterogeneous network environment. In a system aspect, the system includes a plurality of heterogeneous computer systems, at least two of the computer systems including a system specified user identification; and an enterprise directory service, the enterprise directory service being shared by the plurality of computer systems to provide for the formation of an enterprise group, the enterprise directory service including at least one enterprise user which is associated with system specified user identification from the at least two of the computer systems. The system in the network in accordance with the present invention may perform cooperative programming with other systems in the same enterprise group. Systems within the same enterprise group are allowed to define enterprise users between them.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and system for providing cross-platform access to Internet users of a heterogeneous grouping of computers. In a system aspect, the system includes a plurality of heterogeneous computer systems, at least one of the plurality of computer systems including an Internet user identity; and an enterprise directory service, the enterprise directory service being shared by the plurality of computer systems, the enterprise directory including at least one enterprise role which is associated with the Internet user identity, the at least one enterprise role capable of being used to access the plurality of computer systems independently of any specific operating system user identification. By allowing enterprise roles to be defined independently of any specific operating system user identification, flexibility is injected into the network configuration and Internet user aggravation is reduced.