News for and about the Internet2 community

[Elizabeth Boten <>]

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Liz Boten,  

InCommon Joins eduGAIN Global Service

Identity and access management benefits extended internationally

 

WASHINGTON, DC, March 29, 2016--InCommon, the U.S. trust and identity infrastructure operated by Internet2, has joined its counterparts in 38 other countries to provide convenient global single sign-on interaction with higher education institutions, research organizations, and corporate service providers.

 

By joining the eduGAIN global service, InCommon extends its identity and access management benefits internationally. This is increasingly important as research and education collaborations become more international in nature, and as the community turns to outsourced and cloud services as critical business functions. Through this international service, researchers, faculty, staff, and students can use their home credentials to access:

 

• online journals and databases registered with other participating federations
• collaborative services offered in various countries by virtual organizations
• international tools for analyzing and sharing data
• services offered through other national federations

 

Each national research and education trust federation (like InCommon) publishes a trust registry in the form of a metadata file, like a large phone book with each college or university or company represented in a common format. Each federation sends its version of the book to eduGAIN, which then combines all the national books and republishes them in one large file. Now a researcher, scientist, or staff member can find all of the international services in one place and gain access as appropriate.

 

“InCommon joining eduGAIN is a major milestone for the research and education community, and a sign of InCommon’s maturity and evolution towards essential infrastructure,” said Steven Carmody, IT Architect at Brown University and chair of the InCommon Technical Advisory Committee. “Faculty, researchers, and students can now access resources and collaboration tools used by their partners from around the world, using their campus credentials. It is now routine for large research projects like LIGO (the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) to include partners from many countries. Smaller projects are also expanding their reach; one in Brown's Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice includes partners from both Europe and Africa. Courses increasingly rely on research sites around the world. This will make collaboration much, much easier for individuals in the U.S., and for those in the 38 other countries that are part of eduGAIN.”

 

“Research and Education is a global community, and collaboration is essential to its success,” said Kevin Morooney, Internet2, vice president, trust & identity programs. “InCommon joining eduGAIN’s global service enables researchers and students an opportunity to connect with higher education institutions, research organizations, and corporate service providers in meaningful, convenient and safe ways all over the world.”

 

In addition to the InCommon identity and access management federation, Internet2 offers additional trust services, including the InCommon Certificate Service, offering unlimited server and other security certificates (currently with more than 370 subscribers); and site licenses for the Duo Security multifactor authentication service.

 

Operated by Internet2, InCommon enables its participants to leverage their identity databases to allow for the use of one set of credentials to access multiple resources. This means identity providers can manage the levels of their users’ privacy and information exchange, and service providers no longer need to maintain user accounts. For more information on InCommon and a full list of participants, visit www.incommon.org.

 

About Internet2

Internet2 is a member-owned advanced technology community founded by the nation’s leading higher education institutions in 1996. Internet2 provides a collaborative environment for U.S. research and education organizations to solve common technology challenges, and to develop innovative solutions in support of their educational, research and community service missions.
 
Internet2 also operates the nation’s largest and fastest, coast-to-coast research and education network, with Internet2 Network Operations Center powered by Indiana University. Internet2 serves more than 90,000 community anchor institutions, 305 U.S. universities, 70 government agencies, 42 regional and state education networks, 84 leading corporations working with our community and more than 65 national research and education networking partners representing more than 100 countries.

 

Internet2 offices are located in Ann Arbor, MI; Denver, CO; Emeryville, CA; Washington, DC; and West Hartford, CT. For more information, visit www.internet2.edu or follow @Internet2 on Twitter.