Federated Identity Appliance for the InCommon™ Federation

Universities are continually challenged to provide users with access to protected external resources such as Apple iTunesU, Turnitin, and collaborative library resources. The InCommon Federation eliminates the need for universities and partners to manage accounts, passwords, and credentials for this external access through the use of Single Sign-on using existing university-credentials. Joining the InCommon federation is a multi-step process involving legal agreements, documentation of organizational identity practices, verification of eligibility, and finally, technical infrastructure.

Aegis’s Federated Identity Appliance for the InCommon federation
Aegis’s Federated Identity Appliance for the InCommon federation provides the technology infrastructure enabling universities to rapidly deploy a solution to join the InCommon federation. The appliance leverages existing campus credentials by integrating with Microsoft Active Directory or other LDAP directories for authentication and authorization. The Aegis Appliance is a turnkey technical infrastructure, allowing university staff to focus on the process to join the InCommon federation and the communication of benefits to students and faculty. The Aegis Federated Identity Appliance is a pre-configured hardware and software solution that uses standards-based components and enterprise-class software which supports future identity needs such as password management, single sign-on (SSO) and Google Apps provisioning.

Aegis’s Appliance for the InCommon Federation uses Sun OpenSSO

OpenSSO is a next-generation federated access management software solution.  OpenSSO provides secure and centralized access control and single sign-on (SSO) for external applications based on the SAML standard.  Together with redundant hardware, AegisUSA provides a hardened, robust, 24x7, highly scalable, high-performance federation solution that is revolutionary in the market today.

Conclusion

Aegis’s Federated Identity Appliance for the InCommon federation provides an opportunity for universities to quickly expand their reach by providing turn-key infrastructure necessary for joining the InCommon federation, allowing access to library & research resources as well the ability to collaborate with 3rd party content partners such as Elsevier, Microsoft & Apple iTunes.

In addition, the Aegis Appliance allows for future IAM initiatives such as provisioning, SSO, and password management to leverage the pre-configured appliance infrastructure.

* InCommon is a registered trademark or trademarks of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development and/or InCommon, LLC in the United States and/or other countries.