Key Features

• Integrates with existing authentication systems such as Microsoft Active Directory™ and LDAP, allowing the user to have a single login identifier that works with third party applications through the InCommon Federation
• All inclusive: hardware, software, implementation and support
• Fixed fee
• Rapid install
• Built on Shibboleth, a standards based, open source software package
• Integrates with TridentHE IAM Suite to provide a complete IAM solution: provisioning, password management, and single-sign-on
   

The InCommon Federation

The AegisUSA Federated Identity Appliance for Higher Education is an integrated hardware and software solution for Federated Single Sign-on (SSO) via the InCommon Federation designed for high availability, low risk and future scalability. The Appliance requires minimal configuration to integrate and uses existing campus identifiers for authentication of users (e.g. AD or LDAP). The Appliance is based on Shibboleth, a standards based, open source software package designed for the specific needs of Higher Education. AegisUSA uses information gathered through multiple Shibboleth implementations to package best practices, tuning settings, and configurations into the appliance making it a plug and play installation.

The Federated Identity Appliance for Higher Education provides an opportunity for universities to quickly expand their reach by providing turn-key infrastructure necessary for enabling federated/ external SSO to InCommon Federation's member service providers. Universities are continually challenged to provide students, faculty, and staff with access to protected external resources such as Apple iTunesU, Turnitin, external libraries and other collaborative resources. Federated identity, also known as external single sign-on, eliminates the need for organizations and partners to manage accounts, passwords, and credentials for this external access through the use of single sign-on using existing, internal university credentials. Federated SSO consists of Identity Providers (IdPs) and Service Providers (SPs). An identity provider handles the authentication of the user to validate that they are indeed an active member of the IdP’s organization. A Service Provider represents an organization wishing to allow external users to access their resources (e.g., Microsoft Dreamspark).

In the U.S., the research and education community has established the InCommon® Federation through which higher education institutions and their service provider partners agree on a set of shared policies, processes, and technology standards. One of those standards is a process for single sign-on, so one set of credentials provides access to resources from any service provider in the Federation, without the need for another user ID or password. InCommon Federation provides a valuable service to both universities and their partners by acting as a hub for multiple federation partners. Without InCommon Federation, each university would need to create a point-to-point federation with each service provider, increasing cost and complexity for both the universities and the service providers.

The AegisUSA Federated Identity Appliance for Higher Education provides an opportunity for universities to quickly expand their reach by providing turn-key infrastructure necessary for enabling federated/external SSO to InCommon Federation's member service providers.

 

E-mail: info@aegisusa.net