Internet2, U.S. Research and Education Makes First Step Toward Global Interfederation
Federated trust expands internationally as InCommon signs eduGAIN Declaration
Internet2’s Trust and Identity and InCommon Steering Committee has voted to join the international eduGAIN service, which interconnects identity federations worldwide. The group agreed to the eduGAIN declaration, the first formal step toward interconnecting Internet2’s InCommon - the U.S. research and education identity federation - with its peers in 30 other federations worldwide. The vote took place last week at the Internet2 Global Summit in Denver.
The eduGAIN service, created and operated by the pan-European GÉANT network, enables the trustworthy exchange of identity and access information among identity federations worldwide.
“Thanks to significant work by InCommon community members and working groups, we are making the first step toward worldwide interfederation,” said Klara Jelinkova, committee chair and senior associate vice president and chief information technology officer at the University of Chicago. “We still have much work to do on the technical details, but this signals our commitment to the trusted exchange of identity information with our partners around the world.”
Through eduGAIN, universities and their researchers and educators can access a greater range of services, delivered by multiple federations in a collaborative environment. Service providers for research, scholarship, and administration will reach international partners in other federations who will seamlessly benefit from the wider range of services.
“We expect eduGAIN will provide significant benefits to InCommon participants,” said Shel Waggener, senior vice president at Internet2. “Identity providers will be able to make many more services available, and our sponsored partners will greatly expand their scope. This is a big win for all involved.”
About GÉANT
GÉANT is the pan-European research and education network that interconnects Europe’s National Research and Education Networks (NRENs). Together we connect over 50 million users at 10,000 institutions across Europe, supporting research in areas such as energy, the environment, space and medicine. eduGAIN is a key service developed within the GÉANT program, which enables the trustworthy exchange of information related to authentication, authorization and identity between member federations. See www.geant.net and www.edugain.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, in which the Network Operations Center is powered by Indiana University. Internet2 serves more than 93,000 community anchor institutions, 250 U.S. universities, 70 government agencies, 38 regional and state education networks, 80 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, Mich.; Denver, Colo.; Emeryville, Calif.; Washington, D.C; and West Hartford, Conn. For more information, visit www.internet2.edu or follow @Internet2 on Twitter.
About Internet2’s InCommon
InCommon®, operated by Internet2®, serves the U.S. education and research communities, supporting a common framework of trust services, including the U.S. identity management trust federation for research and education, a community-driven Certificate Service, an Assurance Program providing higher levels of trust, and a multifactor authentication program. InCommon has more than 600 participants, including higher education institutions and research organizations, and their sponsored partners.
Contact: Dean Woodbeck
woodbeck@internet2.edu
(906) 523-9620