1. Building a National Access Management Infrastructure
Kieran Loftus
Director of Computer Services, NUI, Galway
November 2007
Kieran Loftus
HEAnet Conference
November 2007

2. Agenda What do we need and why? Benefits & side effects Where we stand
Next steps
Kieran Loftus
HEAnet Conference
November 2007

3. What do we need? “Sustainable World-Class Research”
Support for collaboration, mobility, resource sharing
Effective, secure, simple
Provide an attractive environment for research
Flexible Teaching & Learning
Academic Mobility
Collaborative programmes
Student mobility between institutions
Personal Mobility
Work anywhere
International effectiveness
Research collaboration, Erasmus, non-EU students
Kieran Loftus
HEAnet Conference
November 2007

4. Immediate drivers Access to licensed resources
Publisher expectations won’t be IP based
Growth of shared resources (IREL, NDLR)
Need a simple authentication solution
Emergence of collaborative academic programmes
Collaborations Cork, Galway, Limerick
Registration issues
Student mobility in Dublin
Research expectations
Multiple collaborations
Rapid and flexible collaboration
Protection of shared outputs
International & Marketplace developments
Suppliers can offer solutions
Shibboleth in UK, US, Mainland Europe
Kieran Loftus
HEAnet Conference
November 2007

5. What does this mean in practice?
Home
Away
Access provided on the basis of data maintained & provided by home institution
Definitive Source
of Identification Data
Resource
Kieran Loftus
HEAnet Conference
November 2007

6. What does this mean in practice?
Business rules to support collaboration
Who can access resources?
Who should control access?
How can we trust and be trusted?
What standards must procedures meet?
Good Local Identity & Access Management
Based on good campus-wide procedures
Needs to meet agreed (inter)national standards
Need for an “others” database
May all lead to significant local benefits
Technical solution on a national scale
International compatibility
Kieran Loftus
HEAnet Conference
November 2007

7. Local Benefits of Local IAM
Service improvements, Cost savings
Eliminate Multiple id Databases
Drive local process improvements
Better management of joiners & leavers
Better tracking of “others”
Library resource access
IT Provisioning & simplified sign-on
Security Management
Campus resource access
Kieran Loftus
HEAnet Conference
November 2007

8. Towards a Sustainable Solution
Two main ideas:
Option One: Do what others have done
Create an “Irish Access Management Federation”
Is Shibboleth the only sensible option?
Option Two: One big national academic directory
Ireland is smaller
Most students are CAO registered
The products can support it
Could we possibly deliver it?
Kieran Loftus
HEAnet Conference
November 2007

9. Solution Issues Federation Centralised solution
Replicates working solutions elsewhere
Needs central leadership (or strong coordination)
Requires Local IAM Solutions
Extensible internationally – may not be easy
Centralised solution
May be appropriate to Irish scale
Definitely requires shared central management
How to deliver it?
May relieve local resources
Still need to provide international solution
Potentially significant national benefits
Potential political issues
Kieran Loftus
HEAnet Conference
November 2007

10. Current Status eInis consortium, PRTLI funded
SIF Cycle 2 Universities proposal
Aim:
to make sure that users are given simple and secure access to the resources which they need from any location
Assumptions:
Will extend to entire third level sector
Central role of HEAnet
Limited local deployments already
Kieran Loftus
HEAnet Conference
November 2007

11. What should we do next? SIF Cycle 2 Outcome December 07
Then (assuming funding available):
Mobilise project partners
Legal & Governance Framework
Architectural study & decision
Full project definition
Pilots
Kieran Loftus
HEAnet Conference
November 2007

12. Thank You
Kieran Loftus
HEAnet Conference
November 2007