|
|
|
|
|
From the Trenches at Sun Identity: Access Management for Web Applications Marina Sum Interviews Sun's Jamie Nelson September 1, 2008, Volume 127, Issue 1
Sun staff writer Marina Sum interviewed Jamie Nelson, director of engineering for access and federation management at Sun, to learn his views on security as it pertains to application development on the web. This interview is part 1 of six, each with a different individual and all part of the From the Trenches at Sun Identity series. Providing for identity in the development of web applications often gets short shrift, according to Nelson. Concerns such as logic and UI so often preoccupy designers that, not until the last minute to they give any attention to the tools that will be used for verification and authorization of access, which maintenance tasks are implied and whether federated identity can be used. The result is either a cut-and-paste approach using community code or a hurried DIY job that results in siloed applications with unique identity infrastructures that act as obstacles to single-sign-on (SSO), he asserts. As an alternative to this harried, patchwork approach, Nelson recommends using Sun Java System Access Manager to centralize security with SSO. Even so, Nelson sees SSO as somewhat outmoded, given the growing interest in using robust federated access management solutions. He sees companies increasingly insist that their developers incorporate security seamlessly and fold it into web-service environments. Java Access Manager can accommodate applications that serve both internal and external customers, Nelson observes, providing federated identity across an entire enterprise. This makes the solution useful even to companies that outsource operations. "That's the current state of SSO," Jamie told Sum. "Doing business outside the firewall while ensuring security and privacy is what federation is all about." Clearly, Sum writes, Nelson believes in access management from the outset in the developer's work. Otherwise, that silo situation mentioned earlier is the predictable result. He suggested that developers use Access Manager or OpenSSO or, as an alternative, Java Application Platform SDK. Doing so, he says, helps avoid high maintenance overheads and makes life easier for everyone. Sum includes some useful references at the end of the interview that include:
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Doing business outside the firewall while ensuring security and privacy is what federation is all about 
Print
Email
From the Trenches at Sun Identity: Access Management for Web Applications
(this article)|
News and Solutions for Users of Solaris, Java and Oracle's Sun hardware products
Just the news you need, none of what you don't – 42,000+ Members – 24,000+ Articles Published since 1998 |
Copyright © 1998-2011 System News, Inc.
