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Enhancing Integrated AMS Services: Athens and the Future of Authentication in Education

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This presentation outlines the current landscape of Athens integrated authentication services, key developments, and future directions for the UK Higher and Further Education sectors. With over 1.8 million accounts in more than 460 institutions and growing implementation across the health sector, Athens demonstrates a successful model of centrally managed services. Key features include Single Sign-On (SSO) capabilities, devolved authentication, and integration with existing systems. The focus is on evolutionary improvements to meet user needs and maintain robust security while ensuring adaptability for future technology standards.

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Enhancing Integrated AMS Services: Athens and the Future of Authentication in Education

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  1. Athens – integrated AMS services Ed Zedlewski JISC/CNI Conference Edinburgh, June 2002

  2. Outline • Athens the present • Key new developments • Athens going forward

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. 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!

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. DA architecture

  9. Role administration

  10. Permission set definition

  11. 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

  12. X.509 certificates • Working demonstrator using X.509 certificates • Built on SSO and DA services • Retains user anonymity

  13. Institution Athens Personnel Student Registry Library System Local Computing Institution User Athens Authentication Point Athens-protected Service (DSP) Athens Agent Athens Single Sign On

  14. 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)

  15. 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

  16. 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

  17. 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

  18. Technology is easy….. …..people are hard

  19. Contacts • http://www.athensams.net • Email helpdesk@athensams.net • Edward.Zedlewski@eduserv.org.uk

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