Speaker
Dr
David Kelsey
(STFC-RAL)
Description
Federated identity management (FIM) is an arrangement that can be made among multiple organisations that lets subscribers use the same identification data to obtain access to the secured resources of all organisations in the group. In many research communities there is an increasing interest in a common approach to FIM as there is obviously a large potential for synergies. FIM4R [1] provides a forum for communities to share challenges and ideas, and to shape the future of FIM for our researchers. Current participation covers life sciences, humanities, and physics, to mention but a few. In 2012 FIM4R converged on a common vision for FIM, enumerated a set of requirements and proposed a number of recommendations for ensuring a roadmap for the uptake of FIM is achieved [2]. FIM4R is currently working on an updated version of this paper, to be published in spring 2018.
How can research communities leverage identity federations for the benefit of their researchers? What are the specific challenges faced by virtual organisations in heterogeneous computing environments? The experience gained by FIM4R over the past 5 years has led to a general acceptance of the necessity of proxies, to act as a mediator between identity providers and the services leveraged by research disciplines. Although many aspects of a federated Authentication and Authorization Infrastructure (AAI) are simplified by the use of such a proxy, several new complexities have been introduced. The adoption of proxies represents a shift in the approach to identity federation and provides the opportunity to reflect on whether our requirements for research environments can be adequately served by existing technologies.
The second whitepaper to be authored by FIM4R is currently under draft and will document the progress made in FIM for Research, in addition to the current challenges. Preliminary requirements gathering activities at FIM4R’s 11th Workshop in Montreal and at Internet2’s Technology Exchange 2017 has identified multiple areas of focus. It is hoped that FIM4R version 2 will be a source of input for federation operators, technology providers, and collaborative projects such as AARC [3] and GN4 [4] as they consider their work plans for the coming years.
During this presentation we will share the conclusions of this second FIM4R whitepaper and present a summary of the identified requirements and recommendations.
[1] https://fim4r.org
[2] https://fim4r.org/documents/
[3] https://aarc-project.eu
[4] https://www.geant.org/Projects/GEANT_Project_GN4
Primary author
Dr
David Kelsey
(STFC-RAL)
Co-authors
Ms
Hannah Short
(CERN)
Peter Gietz
(DAASI)
Dr
Scott Koranda
(LIGO)
Tom Barton
(UChicago & Internet2)
