Federation Information for Identity Providers
See JISC's guide for Institutions with full details of JISC's federation plans and its impact on institutions (Mar 08)
Introduction
JISC invites all UK HE and FE institutions to join the UK Access Management Federation and to adopt federated access management.
The UK federation guidance for the application process
JISC’s contract with Athens ended in July 2008. Athens will continue to be available to institutions beyond July 2008 on a subscription basis.
This page provides some useful information about the transition to the UK federation.
NOTE In January 2008 JISC announced changes to its federated access management transition programme in regard to further funding of the Federation Gateway Services. More information and JISC advice to institutions.
Joining the UK federation as an Identity Provider
JISC recommends that all institutions carry out an institutional audit, and include these developments within the Information Strategy. JISC has produced the 'Federated Access Management: Business Case Toolkit' that can be used tp help with the audit (see the Resources page).
A potential Identity Provider will need to carry out the following activities:
- Review the information structure within its institutional directory and ensure that it meets the required standards for exchanging information.
- Adopt a Single Sign-On or Common ID Solution for authentication.
- Implement Identity Provider software.
- Join the Federation (see the Federation website)
- Roll-out the service within the institution.
The Federation roadmap document produced by JISC gives a simple visual explanation of these processes and choices available to institutions.
It is important to emphasise that institutions have choices, and that these choices should be supported by informed decisions. The potential models for adoption are outlined below and in the briefing papers recently sent out to institutions. Institutions should consider how well each of these models fits with their IT strategy.
JISC is providing extensive support mechanisms for institutions wishing to adopt federated access management solutions. JISC committed to fund both the current Athens service and the new federated access management service until 31 July 2008.
For more details on the process that an Identity Provider needs to follow in order to implement federated access management, check the Joining the UK federation process map (pdf).
All of the services described are available to all Higher and Further Education institutions.
For a list of institutions and Service Providers that have already joined the UK federation, please go to the UK federation website (the current membership page).
Choices for institutions
There are three ways in which an institution may participate in the UK federation:
- Use community supported (or open-source) software and in-house technical support. This will mainly involve internal costs in terms of the effort required to implement the solutions.
- Use open-source software and paid-for technical support.
- Subscribe to an ‘outsourced Identity Provider’ to work through the federation on your institution’s behalf, such as OpenAthens. The costs of this option include the subscription costs to the external supplier (from July 2008) and internal administration. Institutions that choose this option still need to join the Federation.
See JISC briefing paper for more information about third party providers that support options 2,3.
Institutions are free to choose both open-source or commercial products. The products chosen must be SAML-compliant, and meet the requirements of the UK federation. Recommendations can be found in the UK Federation Policy Documents on the UK Federation website, in particular see Technical recommendations for participants (PDF).
Costs of joining the Federation
Membership of the Federation is free at the point of use for both Identity Providers and Service Providers within or serving the UK HE and FE community. Costs of implementing the federated access management solutions will depend on the model chosen by institutions or service providers.
It is estimated that the up-front costs of adopting federated access management range from £5,000 for a simple implementation to £150,000 for a full directory replacement project. Pragmatic costs are recommended at £40,000 for large institutions and £10,000 for small institutions.
There are a number of organisations that can provide paid-for support for Options 2 and 3. JISC has produced a briefing paper to give more details about those organisation and the services they provide. More information.
Support and guidance about the transition
JISC committed to support institutions in this changing environment. As well as funding the UK federation, JISC is:
- funding the provision of the Athens service until July 2008
- funding assisted take-up activities to support the community
- providing case studies, reports, toolkits and advice from the work carried out in its ‘early adopter’ programmes
- making the services hosted by Mimas, Edina and other JISC services fully federation-compliant
- providing roadmaps for educational institutions and publishers to clearly outline the choices that they have to make.
For the latest information about the JISC Access Management Programmes, go to News. The JISC Access Management blog is also a good place for keeping up-to-date with current access management issues.
Key milestones
Key milestones in the transition to Federated Access Management
For more information on service providers that have already adopted federated access management
Rolling out the new service to end-users
Information for library staff involved in rolling out federated access management to end-users.
Back to top