The white paper "Guide to Open Source Identity Management" (login or registration required) explores the advantages of open-source identity software and provides a look at Sun Identity Source, the open-source identity initiative, which currently includes OpenSSO and OpenDS.

OpenSSO, Sun's open-source identity management project, provides highly scalable, high-performance capabilities for single sign-on (SSO), access management, federation, and secure Web services. OpenDS is an open-source community project focused on building a free, comprehensive, next-generation directory service based on LDAP and DSML standards.

As the white paper points out, the advantage of open source solutions in identity management situations lies in their being able to be highly usable and intuitive. Only such a solution can accommodate the hundreds of millions of users anticipated to result from the shift in enterprise IT as it moves from enterprise-focused applications to extranet-focused applications.

The two key components of enterprise identity management identified by the white paper are access management (which comprises federation, secure Web services, and entitlement enforcement) and directory services (encompassing easy yet secure access to information in multiple repositories and the highest possible levels of availability while also providing the ability to scale dramatically to keep pace with constantly growing and changing groups of internal and external use).

The white paper includes a brief review of developments involving open source solutions as they bear on identity management applications in recent years.

Despite the adherence of proprietary, closed identity products to established standards, their implementation often proves prohibitively costly to enterprises who then turn to Sun's open open source identity management products, which offer transparency into the product’s code and road map as well as predictable, subscription-based licensing and maintenance costs.

In the case of Sun's Identity Source (which is not an actual product but rather the umbrella name for Sun’s open-source identity initiatives and a mode of developing solutions), the products are based on source code that has already been proven in the marketplace. Each project’s worldwide community then builds onto the code iteratively and out in the open, subject to a rigorous process that involves reviewing the code, identifying what will go into the actual binary, and what’s going to be included in separate external libraries.

The respective contributions of Project OpenSSO and Project OpenDS are reviewed by the white paper, which then concludes with success stories concerning enterprises that have implemented open source identity management solutions.

More Information

OpenSSO

OpenDS

Sun Identity Source [...read more...]

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