Federated Access Management

Federated Access Management describes a set of policies and rules for access to online resources that a group of organisations have agreed to share. These policies enable the members to establish trust and a shared understanding of language and/or terminology. An access management federation provides a structure and a legal framework that enables authentication and authorisation across different organisations.

OpenAthens products and services are used in an increasing number of federations across the world. These are currently known to include:

• ACOnet (Austria)
• DFN-AAI (Germany)
• Edugate (Eire)
• eduID.cz (Czech federation)
• GakuNin (Japan)
• OpenAthens Federation
• RENATER (France)
• SIR (Spain)
• SURFfederatie (Holland)
• SWITCHaai (Switzerland)
• UK Access Management Federation (United Kingdom)
• WAYF (Denmark)

Eduserv's adoption of the key open standards reduces the number of technical changes required of publishers and service providers. As the standards themselves continue to mature and evolve, and federation policies change with more real-world experience, OpenAthens will absorb the impact of these changes, which in turn reduces support costs for publishers and other service providers.

Joining an access management federation

Each federation has its own procedures for joining, so you will need to ask the federation you want to join what their requirements are. You can outsource your identity provider to Eduserv by using the OpenAthens MD service, or alternatively if you use our OpenAthens LA solution (or are a service provider) then you would need to join the federation in your own right.

If you have questions about joining any access management federation through OpenAthens email us at athenshelp@eduserv.org.uk.