JISC

Project Brief

The UK Access Management Federation was launched in November 2006, providing UK education and research institutions  with a consistent method of accessing online resources and services through federated management.  From the 1st of August 2008 all UK institutions will need to be members of the UK federation in order to gain access to resources that are federation protected.  JISC has recommended that all UK institutions, publishers and service providers adopt an access management solution based on the SAML open standard eg. Shibboleth.

JISC has indentified some barriers to uptake amongst smaller FE/HE Institutions, primarily due to lack of skills set.  For some of these Instiutions the cost of implementing a federated access management solution in-house is not pragmatic in terms of their business plan.

This project aims to provide smaller institutions with a direct install of an Identity Provider platform (IdP) and support and advice to enable them to join the UK federation as service providers and to be able to maintain their preferred in-house management solution on completion of the project.  The focus of this project is to provide direct technical support to Further Education Colleges and small Higher Education Institutes that seek to join the UK Access Management Federation (UKAMF) as Identity Providers (IdP).

 Aims, Objectives and Scope

Aims

The aim of this project is to provide direct support (Shibboleth installation, training and technical) to the recommended list of JISC approved Institutions wishing to become a UK Access Management Federation Identity Provider.

Objectives

The projects key objectives are:

• Advice and guidance in completing the Institutional Audit
• Guide colleges in completing the technical pre-requisites
• Supply easy-to-understand support documentation
• Provide basic training to strategic staff members (IT Services / LRC Managers)
• Offer roll-out technical support via a fully operational project helpdesk
• Develop a project website to keep institutions up-to-date with their progress.

Scope

 The project team will provide support to publishers through:

•  Individual meetings with publishers to discuss their requirements and support
• Training on implementation of Shibboleth SP and integration with the publishers other systems
• A helpdesk during the lifetime of the project for technical queries
• Full documentation on the set up and implementation of the Shibboleth SP software with the publisher’s systems.

Anticipated Outputs and Outcomes

 Outputs

• Project Website
• Institution Briefing Pack
• Documentation of case studies of Shibboleth IdP installation for each of the participating institutions
• Final Report: Dec 2008
• Reports from participating institutions on the support project
• Institutional audits completed to facilitate  the adoption of federated access management
• General advice and assistance with joining the Federation, federated roll-out, Shibboleth load balancing, back-ups and future upgrades
• Basic Shibboleth technical training

Outcomes

• Assisting FE and smaller HE institutions in joining the UK Access Management Federation as Identify Providers
• Publishers understanding and abiding by federation rules
• Institutions able to maintain their Shibboleth IdP installation
• Connection of Institutions to resources and helping with e-Learning and content delivery
• Benefits of Shibboleth training which permits college technical staff to support this technology independently