Community News

All you ever wanted to know about Federated Identity Management (FedIdM) but were afraid to ask.

Exploring the Value of Federated Identity Management in 10 Easy Lessons

The research and education networking community is focused on removing as many barriers to accessing information as possible, and has enjoyed huge success in helping connect students, researchers and academic staff from around the world.

However with increased connectivity there comes a need to manage and control access to enable authorised users to connect to, create and share information. To achieve trusted collaboration effective management of user identities is essential. In an interconnected world the process of establishing identity management systems, joining federations, and sharing resources presents many challenges and opportunities to institutions and organizations.

“Every robust collaboration is built on trust. Federated Identity Management allows any organization to express their local trust relationships with faculty, staff, and students in a way that can be understood and leveraged by the global R&E community.”

Lucy Lynch (NSRC)

The payoffs of an investment in a well-designed identity management system are significant. Examples include;

  • Improving campus network security,
  • Allowing resource sharing on a global scale for students and faculty, and
  • Enhancing collaboration opportunities for researchers and educators.

To help Research and Education organizations around the world develop and manage identity services, an international collaboration led by GÉANT  and Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC) of the University of Oregon have created a series of video sessions that will take you through the policies and technologies of identity management at a local level. The videos then continue with further discussion on how identity federations build on and are of value to campus identity systems, and how to manage the risks involved.

“Federated Identity Management offers a wide range of benefits for the R&E community but the learning curve to understanding the technology is significant.  With these videos, we break down that complexity into bite-size learning to better support adopters and help them move quickly to implementation”

Nicole Harris (GÉANT)

Thanks to the support of the GÉANT and the NSRC these materials are free to use for any interested groups or individuals.

To find out more about this video series and other NSRC resources, visit https://learn.nsrc.org/FedIdM/

 

Skip to content