Sun Software Architect on OpenSSO's Identity Services

In Part 6 of a Sun Developer Network interview series, From the Trenches at Sun Identity, software architect Aravindan Ranganathan first explains why developers have been asking for "APIs for calling into [Sun Java System] Access Manager." That's a key access management and federation product from Sun, available in open source as OpenSSO.In addition, Aravindan elaborates on the capabilities of Sun's answer: identity services, which are simple OpenSSO interfaces based on Simple Object Access Protocol [SOAP] or Representational State Transfer [REST]. They can perform many security-related tasks for Web applications: authentication, single sign-on, logout, authorization. The benefits are many, and plans are in place for integrating identity services with a new, merged product, due for open-source release soon.

Another SDN series, Securing Applications With Identity Services, delves into the details of the procedures. Four parts are available so far and more are forthcoming. Do stay tuned.