Architecting a cloud scale identity fabric

Architecting a Cloud-Scale Identity Fabric by Eric Olden

Execution Environments for Distributed ComputingBy João Rosa, Mário Almeida and Alex 'El Baron'

Barcelona 23 April 2012

Outline (1/2)Introduction● Cloud benefits● Identity problem Identity stack● Authorization● Authentication● User account management● Auditing● Cloud Plattaform Architecture

Outline (2/2)

Identity properties● Integration● Network effect● Abstraction Identity as a service Conclusion

Introduction

Cloud benefits

Access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources. Elastic scalability Reliability, availability and flexibility.

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Identity problem (1/3)

It's young! Not fully thrustable!

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Identity problem (2/3) There isn't a strategy to handle the enormous volume of users identities.

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Identity problem (3/3) Identity management is a key bottleneck to cloud adoption!

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Identity stack

Authorization The problem: Authorization must envolve to a distributed model to support users outside the network firewall The solution: Authorization in Depth, Grouping Access, Distributed Federated Model

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Authentication The problem: SAML adoption is not famous in the enterprise apps world The solution: HTTP authentication standard

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User Account Management The problem: every app performs a user management differently The solution: standarlization of user management APIs

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Auditing The problem: overcome the lack of visibility in user access The solution: framework to understand the global jurisdictional rules

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Cloud Platform Architectural The problem: virtualized platforms have a huge decrease in performance with high utilization rates The solution: proxy-base approach

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Identity properties

Integration (1/2)One-to-many federated identity model

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Integration (2/2)Example:● 10,000 users that access 15 apps. ● In a one-to-one model, this requires 150,000

credentials (passwords). ● Resetting a credential once a year via a $30

help desk results inl $4.5 million expense. If licensing, deployment, integration, and maintenance costs are $50,000 p/connection (15 apps), the total expense would be $750,000.

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Network effect

As more users and apps are integrated in the identity network, these benefits extend to other network members simply by virtue of their being connected.

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Abstraction

Enterprises must be able to use more than one type of authentication depending on the level of risk associated with an app.

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Abstraction

Externalize identity functions for Web apps in public or private clouds. Focus on improving apps. Enterprises can manage identity across multiple apps more efficiently.

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Identity as a service

Identity as a service

Think less about identity technology and focus on service-level agreements and service management. Move from a company-owned to a service-provider-owned and operated identity management approach.

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Consumerization Consumer-based web apps

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Consumerization

Unexpected viral adoption or porting an app server to the cloud. Each identity integration point becomes a stress point, and each credential creates a broader attack surface and potential help desk expense.

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Conclusions

Conclusions

Facebook has exploded in popularity, with more than 550 million users. The support for identity sharing via OpenID, made hundreds of millions of people suddenly have OpenID credentials.

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Conclusions

An identity access fabric linking enterprises to the cloud is not only relevant but also necessary.

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ConclusionsAn identity fabric:

● provides secure linkage between the enterprise and the cloud.

● reduces the number of identities and scales better.

● enables full-scale cloud adoption.● provides an infrastructure service with on-

demand dial-tone quality. ● benefits users, administrators, vendors, and

service providers in dramatic ways. 119

Questions

References- Architecting a Cloud-Scale Identity Fabric, Eric Olden, Symplified Images (CC rights):http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobilestreetlife/4278659537/

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