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IBM Joins Liberty Alliance
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IBM Joins Liberty Alliance William Knight
IBM's support for the Liberty Alliance brings standard convergence for federated identity a step closer.
I
Infosecurity Today November/December 2004
BM has bowed to customer pressure and joined the Liberty Alliance, which seeks to standardize digital identity authentication. It has agreed to implement Liberty standards in its Tivoli network management offering, and to join the Liberty board. The Liberty Alliance was started in 2001 by Sun Microsystems at the request of the Visa International credit card company. It has been driving industry consensus on federated identity standards. User firms fear that proprietary solutions and competing ideas are holding back progress and damaging security. Karla Norsworthy, vice president of software standards at IBM, said "Customers are looking for identity management software that is flexible, supporting both WS-Federation and Liberty. IBM plans to support a broad range of federated identity specifications across its Tivoli identity management product line." IBM kept its distance from Liberty until now. It promoted its own Web Services stack, known as WS-Federation, which overlapped with the Liberty specifications. However, at the request of Orange, France Telecom’s mobile phone operator with 50 million users, IBM committed to supporting Liberty Alliance specifications on Tivoli in July. It might be pragmatic marketing by IBM but the move will sway federated identity convergence towards the Alliance's framework. IBM’s announcement came during a meeting with Liberty sponsors and board members in Tokyo on 16 October. Bjorn Wigforss, vice president of Liberty Alliance and senior marketing manager for Nokia Technology Platforms, is delighted. "This is a
major achievement," he said. Wigforss believes that as long as organisations adopt incompatible standards, security will continue to complicate matters. "Companies build themselves into silos behind firewalls and other security systems, increasingly distancing themselves from partners and customers," he says. Orange customers will have a single sign-on that allows identity data to communicate over disparate networks. Jean-Paul Maury, vice president of technologies, strategic partnerships and new usages at France Telecom, said "As we offer more services to our large customer base, customers demand the ease of having single sign-on across their mobile and ISP services." Over a billion mobile phone users who could demand a single sign-on is a big incentive for federated identity standards. Mark Blowers, senior analyst at Butler Group, believes it was only a matter of time before IBM put its weight behind the alliance. "Customers want interoperability between the various standards, or for vendors to support both," he says. "This made it inevitable that IBM would join the Liberty Alliance at some point." Indeed, there is lots of momentum behind Liberty standards. Wigforss expects to see 400 million Liberty-enabled online identities and clients by 2005. He believes IBM involvement will accelerate take up. "There are several companies that are supporting various implementations but Liberty is supported to a larger and larger extent. When enterprises look at federated identity and identity management they will see the alliance's work and find IBM has
a compliant product." IBM has yet to announce its representatives to the Liberty board. A heavyweight like IBM could unbalance Liberty's decision-making, but Wigforss does not see this is as a danger. The Liberty Alliance has more than 150 member companies, nonprofit and government organisations worldwide. "Liberty is driving convergence, therefore any member is more than welcome to contribute to that work. Of course, there is always a discussion when a new member comes in, but we are looking forward to having them coming on board and for them to start contributing." While IBM's announcement is linked with Orange and France Telecom, and indeed Liberty have
a bold footprint in the mobile and telecoms industry, the news will be welcomed by most ebusinesses. "Federation in this context means the ability to access securely and seamlessly distributed environments that often reside in different legal entities. It makes it possible for organisations to share and manage identity," says Wigforss. Liberty standards are now considered a key enabler for linking communities within the company, he adds. "Through effective identity management, employees can traverse the various portals (engineering, manufacturing, dealer, supplier, etc.) without having to reauthenticate themselves each time they enter a new portal."
A bronze statue of the mathematician Alan Turing, on the University of Surrey campus, unveiled by The Earl of Wessex. The statue was created by John W. Mills, and took over 18 months to complete. It depicts Alan Turing striding across the University piazza in front of the Austin Pearce Building, which houses the University's computer labs. Turing, who lived in Guildford in his earlier life, led the Bletchley Park team that succeeded in breaking highlevel secret German codes in World War II, using the first practical programmed computer, called Colossus. Britain and its allies would probably have lost the war against fascism had it not been for his genius. In 1937 Turing suggested a theoretical machine, since called a Turing Machine, that became the basis of modern
computing. In 1950 he suggested what has become known as a ‘Turing's test’, still the criterion for recognising intelligence in a machine. Turing died in 1954.
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IBM Joins Liberty Alliance William Knight
IBM's support for the Liberty Alliance brings standard convergence for federated identity a step closer.
I
Infosecurity Today November/December 2004
BM has bowed to customer pressure and joined the Liberty Alliance, which seeks to standardize digital identity authentication. It has agreed to implement Liberty standards in its Tivoli network management offering, and to join the Liberty board. The Liberty Alliance was started in 2001 by Sun Microsystems at the request of the Visa International credit card company. It has been driving industry consensus on federated identity standards. User firms fear that proprietary solutions and competing ideas are holding back progress and damaging security. Karla Norsworthy, vice president of software standards at IBM, said "Customers are looking for identity management software that is flexible, supporting both WS-Federation and Liberty. IBM plans to support a broad range of federated identity specifications across its Tivoli identity management product line." IBM kept its distance from Liberty until now. It promoted its own Web Services stack, known as WS-Federation, which overlapped with the Liberty specifications. However, at the request of Orange, France Telecom’s mobile phone operator with 50 million users, IBM committed to supporting Liberty Alliance specifications on Tivoli in July. It might be pragmatic marketing by IBM but the move will sway federated identity convergence towards the Alliance's framework. IBM’s announcement came during a meeting with Liberty sponsors and board members in Tokyo on 16 October. Bjorn Wigforss, vice president of Liberty Alliance and senior marketing manager for Nokia Technology Platforms, is delighted. "This is a
major achievement," he said. Wigforss believes that as long as organisations adopt incompatible standards, security will continue to complicate matters. "Companies build themselves into silos behind firewalls and other security systems, increasingly distancing themselves from partners and customers," he says. Orange customers will have a single sign-on that allows identity data to communicate over disparate networks. Jean-Paul Maury, vice president of technologies, strategic partnerships and new usages at France Telecom, said "As we offer more services to our large customer base, customers demand the ease of having single sign-on across their mobile and ISP services." Over a billion mobile phone users who could demand a single sign-on is a big incentive for federated identity standards. Mark Blowers, senior analyst at Butler Group, believes it was only a matter of time before IBM put its weight behind the alliance. "Customers want interoperability between the various standards, or for vendors to support both," he says. "This made it inevitable that IBM would join the Liberty Alliance at some point." Indeed, there is lots of momentum behind Liberty standards. Wigforss expects to see 400 million Liberty-enabled online identities and clients by 2005. He believes IBM involvement will accelerate take up. "There are several companies that are supporting various implementations but Liberty is supported to a larger and larger extent. When enterprises look at federated identity and identity management they will see the alliance's work and find IBM has
a compliant product." IBM has yet to announce its representatives to the Liberty board. A heavyweight like IBM could unbalance Liberty's decision-making, but Wigforss does not see this is as a danger. The Liberty Alliance has more than 150 member companies, nonprofit and government organisations worldwide. "Liberty is driving convergence, therefore any member is more than welcome to contribute to that work. Of course, there is always a discussion when a new member comes in, but we are looking forward to having them coming on board and for them to start contributing." While IBM's announcement is linked with Orange and France Telecom, and indeed Liberty have
a bold footprint in the mobile and telecoms industry, the news will be welcomed by most ebusinesses. "Federation in this context means the ability to access securely and seamlessly distributed environments that often reside in different legal entities. It makes it possible for organisations to share and manage identity," says Wigforss. Liberty standards are now considered a key enabler for linking communities within the company, he adds. "Through effective identity management, employees can traverse the various portals (engineering, manufacturing, dealer, supplier, etc.) without having to reauthenticate themselves each time they enter a new portal."
A bronze statue of the mathematician Alan Turing, on the University of Surrey campus, unveiled by The Earl of Wessex. The statue was created by John W. Mills, and took over 18 months to complete. It depicts Alan Turing striding across the University piazza in front of the Austin Pearce Building, which houses the University's computer labs. Turing, who lived in Guildford in his earlier life, led the Bletchley Park team that succeeded in breaking highlevel secret German codes in World War II, using the first practical programmed computer, called Colossus. Britain and its allies would probably have lost the war against fascism had it not been for his genius. In 1937 Turing suggested a theoretical machine, since called a Turing Machine, that became the basis of modern
computing. In 1950 he suggested what has become known as a ‘Turing's test’, still the criterion for recognising intelligence in a machine. Turing died in 1954.
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