News and information about InCommon Academy offerings

[Dean Woodbeck <>]

Institutions considering outsourcing the management of their federated
identity infrastructure can do so at no or reduced charge through
Internet2's InCommon affiliate, Fischer International Identity. Qualified
institutions receive two years Shibboleth Identity Provider (IdP) hosting
with 24/7 management for up to 5,000 full-time equivalent students at no
charge.

Fischer is also offering the service through regional networks, such as
OARnet, which operates the Ohio broadband network for education, K-12 and
state and local government, as well as IT infrastructure and innovative
services. OARnet will be the first regional network to host the service.
Fischer is currently undergoing the Internet2 NET+ Service validation
process.

Joining InCommon requires an institution to support SAML-based federated
identity management technology, such as Shibboleth software; however,
institutions without adequate staff or funding to achieve and maintain the
technical requirements sometimes delay their federation projects
indefinitely. Fischer removes this barrier by hosting and supporting the
Shibboleth Identity Provider.

"Fischer's Service will help additional institutions to quickly and
cost-effectively participate in the InCommon Federation," said Jack Suess,
chief information officer and vice president for information technology at
UMBC, and chair of the InCommon Steering Committee. "We're glad the
business model also works well for regional networks; they will be vital
to enabling access to InCommon applications for hundreds of additional
institutions."

By offering this hosted service at no charge for two years, Fischer will
help more institutions share the same benefits as the current 346 higher
education InCommon participants -- leveraging InCommon to easily integrate
some of the 137 InCommon commercial service providers and 28 Internet NET+
Services in place today.

Fischer's offering also provides federated access to resources that are
specific to regional networks. "Fischer's support for regional network
applications increases the benefits we can deliver to our members," stated
Pankaj Shah, Executive Director, Ohio Academic Resources Network (OARnet).
"Our members obtain greater levels of convenience, choices, and security
with federated access to resources in both the InCommon Federation and
OARnet's own trust community."

"Fischer is dedicated to the advancement of education and we have been
impressed with what Internet2's InCommon and NET+ Services, and regional
networks like OARnet are doing to advance education," said Dennis
McDermott, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Fischer. "We are
pleased to donate this service to help additional institutions join
InCommon to leverage the cloud offerings available through Internet2. We
have worked hard to provide a reliable and friendly self-service delivery
model for our proven Federation solution so we can offer a no-cost
federated single sign-on service to a large number of institutions."

About Ignite-Federation

Fischer's Ignite-Federation is a virtual Identity Provider (IdP) service
that enables single sign-on access to resources such as Internet2 NET+
Services, EDUCAUSE, Kuali Foundation, National Student Clearinghouse, and
many others. The Service satisfies the IdP-related requirements for
InCommon participation and fully supports the latest release of
Shibboleth. The Service also enables institutions to maintain control of
user passwords, which are never stored in an outside system. For more
information, visit www.ignite-federation.com

About Fischer International Identity

Fischer International was founded in 1982 by Addison Fischer, a security
visionary whose many accomplishments are recognized globally. Fischer
International is the leader in cloud-based identity management and has a
distinguished history of providing unparalleled value through its
innovation and thought leadership in the security industry. Fischer
continues its technology leadership and innovation with its identity
services platform that makes identity management cost effective for the
masses. It simplifies identity management, scales seamlessly from the
smallest institutions to the largest university systems, and can be
implemented either as a traditional on-premise deployment or via the
Identity as a Service® cloud. For more information, visit
www.fischerinternational.com

Contacts

Internet2
Dean Woodbeck
InCommon Program Manager
+1 734-352-7007


Fischer International
Glenn Choquette
Director of Product Management
+1 239-643-1500