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The JISC’s Core Middleware Programme

The JISC’s Core Middleware Programme. Terry Morrow JISC Consultant. Summary. Athens JISC Core Middleware Programme Technology Development Infrastructure Early adopter programme The Future. The Athens Story. Athens developed in the UK over 10 years old

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The JISC’s Core Middleware Programme

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  1. The JISC’s Core Middleware Programme Terry Morrow JISC Consultant

  2. Summary • Athens • JISC Core Middleware Programme • Technology Development • Infrastructure • Early adopter programme • The Future

  3. The Athens Story • Athens developed in the UK • over 10 years old • solution to problem of multiple identities accessing multiple remote services • centralised authentication + authorisation • Technology plus infrastructure • Help desk, local administrators etc • Very successful • 500 HE/FE institutions; over 2 million usernames registered • “Ahead of its time” • Most service providers have provided an Athens compliant access mechanism • Mandatory for recent supplier contracts with JISC • Approximately 200 licensed resources controlled via Athens

  4. Athens – good, but not perfect • Requires management of separate “Athens accounts” • Users must obtain separate Athens username password (“Classic Athens”) • Have to remember Athens username/password – only used for remote services • AthensDA works more like Shibboleth (local id’s used) • Little take-up of Athens outside UK • though used in other sectors in the UK - eg Health service • Service providers have to licence Athens - cost • Centralised service – relatively high operational costs • Not well suited to increasingly complex authorisation scenarios • Meanwhile, other countries starting to adopt SAML/Shibboleth based technologies • USA (InCommon), Switzerland (SWITCHaai), Finland (HAKA)

  5. JISC’s Core Middleware Programme Programme : • Commenced April 2004; two components: • Technology Development • Infrastructure Aims: • better understanding of middleware potential and application within HE and FE • build a working Shibboleth infrastructure • support take-up and use of Shibboleth within HE and FE • ensure developments are embedded within HE and FE • ensure join-up across JISC development in relation to middleware • More details online at • http://www.jisc.ac.uk/programme_middleware.html

  6. Core MiddlewareTechnology Development Programme

  7. Technology Development • Core Middleware: Technology Development Programme • April 2004 – March 2007 • Programme has funded 15 different projects • Supports investigations into several key areas: • Internal (intra-institutional) applications • Access to external, third-party resources • Inter-institutional use • stable, long-term resource sharing between defined groups e.g. shared e-learning scenarios • ad hoc collaborations, potentially dynamic in nature (virtual organisations or VOs)

  8. Technologies • Some of the technologies investigated: • PERMIS (Privilege and Role Management Infrastructure Standards) • RADIUS (Wireless Networking and Roaming) • SHIBBOLETH • 15 Projects include eg: • PERMIS/Shibboleth integration (SIPS project, Salford) • DyVOSE – Dynamic Virtual Organisations in e-Science Education (Glasgow/Edinburgh) • ESP-GRID – Evaluation of Shibboleth & PKI for Grids – Oxford University • Supported By: • SDSS (Shibboleth Development & Support Services) - Edinburgh University • Study of Institutional Roles • Expert reports (e.g. Single Sign-on – Gilmore, Farvis, Maddock)

  9. Core MiddlewareInfrastructure Programme

  10. Infrastructure Programme • Aim - establish a working UK Shibboleth infrastructure • Government Comprehensive Spending Review funding • Additional funding to JISC’s main annual budget • Approx £3.4m from Apr 2004 to Mar 2006 • Main work areas: • Making Data Centre services (MIMAS and EDINA) Shibboleth compliant • Creating Athens/Shibboleth gateways • Funding for organisations willing to be early Shibboleth adopters • Creating a service to assist the early adopters • Establishing a national UK federation (to be known as Sparta) • Liaising with suppliers: publishers, subscription agents etc

  11. Early Adopters • Early Adopter Programme runs from March 2005 – December 2006 • Two strands: • Institutional Adopters (introducing Shibboleth at a university, FE college etc) • 12 projects • Funding up to £50,000 available per institution • Distributed E-learning Regional Pilot projects • 9 of the projects funded to add Shibboleth capability • Up to £40,000 available • Additional call recently issued – closing date 19 Sep • 18 responses now being evaluated – not all can be funded • 4 responses from Scotland

  12. Early Adopters • 12 Institutional early adopter projects funded: • ShibboLEAP (consortium of 6 London University colleges) • Leeds (GILEAD) • Nottingham (UNISA) • Nottingham Trent (East Midlands deployment) • UK Data Archive (SAFARI) • Newcastle (SAPIR) • Bristol (Metaleth) • Liverpool (LSIP) • Cardiff (ASMIMA) • Exeter (Project SWISh) • St George’s Hospital Med Sch (ADAMS) • Liverpool (Cheshire Project)

  13. E-Learning Early Adopters • The following are including Shibboleth in their e-learning pilot projects: • University of Newcastle (EPICS) • University of Central England • University of Nottingham (RIPPLL) • Liverpool John Moores University • University of Staffordshire • Birkbeck, University of London (L4ALL) • University of Wolverhampton • University College Worcester • University of Essex (EERN) (Chimera)

  14. Examples of Early Adopter Projects • Leeds University – GILEAD • Creating a Shibboleth IdP based on AthensIM for access to Nathan Bodington VLE • Eliminate requirement is issue Athens accounts by using Athens gateway • Nottingham University – UNISA • Deploying Eduserv implementation of Shibboleth IdP • Had hoped to register all new students this September with only local identities • Bristol University – Metaleth • Implement Shibboleth • Integrate with Ex Libris’s Metalib & SFX link server • UK Data Archive – SAFARI • Access control to a wide range of social science survey data • Embedding in one-stop registration service

  15. More Examples • Cardiff University – ASMIMA • Implement Shibboleth IdP • Move from 10,000 Athens accounts to using local identifiers via Shibboleth • Investigating using Shibboleth to control access to National Health Service resources • Exeter University – SWISh • Implement Shibboleth IdP • Implement a pilot service with a small number of users • Expand service • Investigate using with university portal, VLE, Library management service • Newcastle University – SAPIR • Replacement of Athens with Shibboleth • Configuration of online Reading List Management; Ex Libris’s Metalib • Test Environment for Aleph Library Management System

  16. ShibboLEAP • Consortium of 6, led by LSE: • Royal Holloway, SOAS, KCL, UCL, Birkbeck, Imperial • Members of the SHERPA-LEAP consortium • SHERPA = Securing a Hybrid Environment for Research Preservation & Access (Nottingham) • LEAP = London E-prints Access Project • Aims: • Establish general purpose Shibboleth origins at each college. • Integrate the ePrints.org server making it a target

  17. Middleware Assisted Take-Up Service (MATU) • Dedicated support service for early adopters • Scoping future requirements for institutions adopting Shibboleth • Support services include: • Comprehensive website • Documentation • Help desk • Onsite support • Training events • Links to, and information about, software See: http://www.matu.ac.uk

  18. Future • UK Federation will be established over next 6-9 months • will cover UK higher/further education & research • Federation will be known as SPARTA • UK HE WAYF (Where Are You From) service to be established • Athens contract with JISC due for renewal 2006 • Likely to be renewed for further 2 years (but possible conditions) • Expectation that support will diminish/stop after that

  19. Challenges (1) • Ensure that the new Sparta federation covers both HE/FE and Research • Multiple federations issues • Getting national federations to interwork • Establishing how multiple federations within a country inter-operateEg: • Sparta and the new BECTA federation • Sparta and NHS federation • InCommon and the US Federal Government

  20. Challenges (2) • Suppliers (eg publishers) need to be persuaded to adopt the technology • May be “pushing at open doors” • Some (eg Elsevier, JSTOR) taking the initiative • Cultural, organisational change • Shifting functions from libraries to computing services • Persuading institutions to move from Athens to Shibboleth • resistance to change • short term cost for long term gain • Early adopter experiences will encourage other institutions • strong interest in second call for early adopters – 18 bids • Educating the community on the advantages of a Shibboleth regime • examples: more flexible subscription models; fine control of courseware access

  21. JISC web pages – http://www.jisc.ac.uk/programme_middleware.html Internet2 http://shibboleth.internet2.edu MATUhttp://www.matu.ac.uk JISCmail lists:JISC-ShibbolethJISC-Shibboleth-Announce Further Information Terry Morrow JISC Consultant t.morrow@jisc.ac.uk

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