Web Initial Sign-on (WebISO)
March 8, 2006
Web initial sign-on or WebISO is a term defined by Internet2 as a system
designed to allow users, with standard web browsers, to authenticate to web-based services across many web servers, using a standard, typically username/password-based central authentication service.
They created the definition, but that doesn’t mean I need to like it… I’d like to propose an alternate working definition:
A single point for web based authentication which provides SSO across multiple systems and services.
I think that could be word-smithed further to really get it nice and concise. Please comment any recommendations you have on this.
What excites me about WebISO solutions is their fantastic ability to deep link systems and services. Users can bookmark or share URLs and when someone accesses these systems and services they will be required to provide credentials and then be directed through to what they need. This also sets up applications in a loosly coupled structure ideal for changing individual services without affecting others.
The drawback of this approach (when compared against a monolithic portal application) is how there is generally not a single welcome screen presented to users after authenticating. This loss of a “funnel” approach can cause weaknesses in communication and a perceived loss of control in your user population. Another potential area for weakness is providing a directory of services and ways for users to find what they need initially.
For those not familiar, a couple examples of real life WebISO tools would be: CAS (now JA-SIG as opposed to Yale), Pubcookie, WebAuth (from Duke), Shibboleth, and more.
Tags: "central authentication service", "web initial sign-on", authentication, cas, definition, duke, federation, identity, identity management, single sign on, sso, webauth, webiso, yale, yale cas
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[...] Recently an ad-hoc survey was circulated on the mace-dir mailing list. This survey asked a bunch of member schools what WebISO solution each was using. Here are the results: [...]
[...] In SunGard Higher Education’s Luminis product one of the many add-on packages you can install is CAS support. CAS is an acronym for Central Authentication Service. This WebISO solution is one of the most common in higher education. CAS was created originally by Yale, but ongoing support has been taken over by JA-SIG. When the CAS package is installed in Luminis, it makes Luminis act as a CAS authentication provider. Coupled with this built-in Luminis support, we use a CAS library called phpCAS that adds to the simplicity of deploying this within our environment. [...]
[...] Until this point I had only though of Shibb as a solution for inter-organizational web-based single-sign on (Federated SSO or WebISO or WebSSO). I knew I could use Shibboleth internally to serve as my WebSSO, but we already have a hugely successful implementation of CAS in our environment. Additionally I haven’t been able to point at a killer application of the federated WebSSO ability. I knew this driver would be coming, but without immediate demand I was luke warm on Shibboleth. [...]
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