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Athens – integrated AMS services. Ed Zedlewski JISC/CNI Conference Edinburgh, June 2002. Outline. Athens the present Key new developments Athens going forward. Where are we now?. Nationwide AMS managed services for: UK Higher/Further education sector run under SLA/contract to JISC
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Athens – integrated AMS services Ed Zedlewski JISC/CNI Conference Edinburgh, June 2002
Outline • Athens the present • Key new developments • Athens going forward
Where are we now? • Nationwide AMS managed services for: • UK Higher/Further education sector • run under SLA/contract to JISC • 1.8m+ accounts in 460+ institutions, using 240+ resources • UK Health sector • ~200 trusts • Centrally managed infrastructure for: • DSP/publisher relations • Institutional support services • Policy issues increasingly important • Increasingly devolved capability • Shared authorisation space and User Profiling
Single Sign On (SSO) • Full production SSO service rolled out • Session credentials stored in cookie • Session maintained at the AP • Already in widespread use • Full deployment anticipated by end 2002
Common platform • 4 years of 100% authentication service uptime • Ongoing development using core components of original Athens • Gradual upgrade of interfaces and services • Driving towards full standards compliance • Users want evolution, rather than revolution • Athens serves a need and it WORKS!
Athens DA • Built on SSO infrastructure • Works with existing DSP plug-in (responder) • Devolved authentication service • Locally defined authentication schema • User authenticated locally • User ID bound to permission set ID at UAS • Presents pseudonym (virtual account) as credentials
Work in progress • Pilot with University of Ulster • VLE integrated with Athens DA • all students, all courses • WebCT, iPlanet, LDAP Directory, Library OPAC • study notes, discussion forums, reading lists • Initial sign can be through campus portal or via DSP
New usability features • Expect to be able to gather useful behavioural statistics • Average No. of different DSP connections per user • Institutions can monitor take-up & usage patterns • Data up/downloading facilities • Security – reduce possible abuse • Enhanced admin facilities for DSP’s
X.509 certificates • Working demonstrator using X.509 certificates • Built on SSO and DA services • Retains user anonymity
Institution Athens Personnel Student Registry Library System Local Computing Institution User Athens Authentication Point Athens-protected Service (DSP) Athens Agent Athens Single Sign On
Institution Athens Personnel Student Registry Library System Local Computing Directory Service Institution User Athens Authentication Point Athens-protected Service (DSP) Athens Agent Athens Devolved Authentication (DA)
Institution Athens Personnel Student Registry Library System Local Computing Directory Service Institution User C Certificate Authority Athens Authentication Point Athens-protected Service (DSP) Athens Agent AthensDA with Certificates
Future development & goals • Facilitate integrated local information environments • Wider deployment of DA services • Exposure against other LDAP flavours • Transition core technology to open standards • SOAP server (XML, SSL, JDBC, SOAP) • Publish the DSP API – DIY or use Athens plug-ins
Summary • Acknowledge work done at Shibboleth, PAPI & JISC • New developments delivered on a resilient platform • Flexibility for institutions to evolve integrated SSO services • Increased deployment of DA services • Move towards open standards
Technology is easy….. …..people are hard
Contacts • http://www.athensams.net • Email helpdesk@athensams.net • Edward.Zedlewski@eduserv.org.uk