Federated Identity On the Rise

Because federated identity is still so new and wrestling with unresolved standards, it hasn't gained much of a toehold with VARs. But given the growing need to have some kind of federated system in vertical networks, such as financial services and health care, VARs would do well to educate themselves. If you're an all-Microsoft shop, chances are you're already familiar with federated solutions, based on the WS-Security spec and TrustBridge tools that run on Windows Server 2003. If you're a cross-platform VAR, you're more likely to choose solutions based on the Liberty Alliance standard and developed by vendors such as Novell, HP, VeriSign and Sun.

Some companies have deployed home-grown federated technologies. Oblix and Plumtree Software combine the Liberty-based network access tools of Oblix with Plumtree's portal software. "Plumtree provides an integrated access-management solution with its portal, and it allows us to upsell our products to its portal partners," says Ken Sims, Oblix vice president of business development.

Serge Shinkar, product manager for Communicator, says the company's Liberty-based HubID solution uses a set of APIs to integrate itself into existing systems. "It's not a centralized ID manager because companies still want to control their information, but they will let a trusted third party manage it," he says.