Continuing our discussion from the previous three months, when creating an integration strategy for service providers--not to mention an SOA for this type of domain--we know by now that we need to create the following:

• Definition of interfaces
• Schemas and records
• Common transactions
• Transformation and mapping
• Security principles and governance
• Process construction and extension

Last month I covered the second two items. This month, I’ll finish our discussion with security principles and governance, and process construction and extension.

Security Principles and Governance

When leveraging service providers, identity management is key. Since the advent of Web services, and other distributed computing standards for that matter, we’ve been wrestling with the notion of identity and how to manage it. With the increasing interest in identity management, so has risen the need for standards to better define this space. These standards are all aiming at binding together identity management systems within all organizations into a unified whole, allowing everyone to be known to everyone else, securely. To that point, let’s examine the emerging standards, along with notion of federated identity management.

It’s a fact that Web services are not for internal use anymore. Consider the notion of service providers, and those who leverage Web services (consumers), or produce Web services (providers), and the need to be known to each, else we risk invoking malicious or incorrect behavior, which could cost us dearly. This is clearly the case with service providers that leverage Web services. As we know, many outside organizations are binding to your services and you to theirs, and the potential for disaster increases unless you know just whom you’re dealing with.

Identity is important in the growth of online sensitive data and confidential relationships. Lacking identities, there is no way to provide certain users with access to certain resources.

Today we use managed identities, including different user names, passwords, and other identifying attributes. The same person may have links to many organizations, including frequent flyer sites, banking sites, employee benefit sites, etc.. Perhaps you have a list of user names and passwords in your drawer today?

The number of identities that we have creates a challenge. We’ve all written down user IDs and passwords on sticky notes just to remember them. Moreover, IT organizations find it increasingly difficult to manage the profusion of identity databases, even within their own organization. The problem becomes a greater issue as we extend our reach outside of the firewall, inter-organization. Enter federated identity and potential solutions to this problem, and why this is so important when leveraging service providers.

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