Participating in Athens & UK AM Federation with OpenAthens [email protected] 07879 633558

Participating in Athens & UK AM Federation

with OpenAthens

[email protected] 633558

mailto:[email protected]

It is your choice

• It is not Athens Vs Shibboleth

• It is all about staff / students

• Managing access to resources– Any time– Any place

• Maintaining a positive user experience

• Cost effective service provision

The Current Situation

• Contract with JISC to Aug 08 for Athens

• Free membership of the Athens Federation– Classic Athens

– Athens DA

– Shibboleth (via gateways)

• UK AM Federation launched Nov 06

The current situation

Implications and options for institutions

Choice & cost of solution rests with institutions

1. Leave Athens & do not join another Federation

2. Remain in Athens Federation - OpenAthens

3. Remain in Athens & participate in UK AM Federation - OpenAthens

4. Join UK AM Federation

– In-house (Shibboleth) IdP

– Outsource (OpenAthens)

• Est. 1995

• JISC central funding on behalf of UK HE/FE 1997

• 4 million users across 193 countries

• Over 2000 members

The Athens federation

http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=615839

• 210 Service Providers

• 99.9999% availability since 1998

• >10,000,000 authentications/month

• Largest managed federated AIM solution in education


http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=615839


“I would be lost without my Athens account” Rachael McKelvey, Bournemouth University

“Athens is extremely important. This is an essential resource for all NHS clinical staff.”

Andrew Brent, NHS

“The speed and ease with which I can do my research is incredible”

Harry Cheesman, Kings College

Athens continual ongoing development

• Gateways

• OpenAthens launched March 2007

• OpenAthens SP launched Oct 2007

• New MyAthens customisable user portal

• Account activation

• 257,000 NHS professionals

• Online access to online information resources– Full text journals

– Clinical databases

– Ebooks

– Open access journals

• NHS National Library for Health

• Part of NHS Institute for Innovation & Improvement

NHS commits to Athens for next 5 years

“NLH will be working with Eduserv and NLH partners in the National Program for IT and Higher Education to ensure that NLH migrates to an open standards platform for access management, ensuring better interoperability between NHS clinical applications, knowledge resources and learning within HE”

Ian McKinnell, Technical Manager at NLH

The future ….

Options for participating in UK AM Federation

1. In-house– Develop, run & support Shibboleth IdP based on SAML

– Run own IdP provided and supported by a 3rd party

2. Outsource e.g. Eduserv’s OpenAthens service

2 Options exist for HE / FE institutions

Considerations

• The full costs Vs benefits

• Maintaining a positive user experience

• Technical resources required – People– Hardware– Software

Considerations

• Administration

• Timescales

• Maintenance and support

• Control

Implementing Shibboleth CostCardiff University

• Implement Shibboleth as a replacement for Athens

• Project started April 2005 and is ongoing

• 5000 staff, 18,000 students, JISC band B

• 28 academic schools, 5 administration directorates

• Close links with NHS Wales

Extracts from Federated Access Management: Institutional Business Case Toolkit, prepared by Curtis+Cartwright Consulting Limited:http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/themes/accessmanagement/cc297d001-1.0%20business%20case%20toolkit.pdfSee also Federated Access Management: Case Studies Supporting the Business Case Toolkit:http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/themes/accessmanagement/cc297d002-1.0%20case%20studies%20supplement.pdf

Implementing Shibboleth CostsCardiff University

• Already invested > £1M in IDM

• £50K funding from the JISC

• £6k for new hardware

• Cost of running Shibboleth IdP estimated at £2k/yr

• Estimated total project budget £75-100k


Costs Kidderminster College

• 2-year project

• Increase usage of Moodle VLE

• 5,100 students, JISC Band I


Costs Kidderminster College

• Project costs to Kidderminster estimated at £39.5k– 1 FTE developer - £25k– Staff development - £4k– Hardware - £3.5k– Other - £7k

• Other funding received– £40k funding from JISC as early adopter of Shibboleth– £92k from Repository of Learning Objects project– £24k of JISC funding via Worcester University


Cost Vs benefits are key

• Wide range of costs

• For many the costs are unclear

• Benefits are unclear for many

• Substantial technical manpower

The way forward for institutions wanting to participate in UK AM Federation

• JISC funded service until 31st July 08

• Fixed annual subscription from 1st Aug 08

• Evaluate the benefits of UK AM Federation now

• Research costs / implications of in-house Vs outsource

• Adopt new technology when and if it makes sense

Participate now with OpenAthens!

What is OpenAthens?

• New standards based framework

• Interoperability with SAML and Shibboleth

• Supported membership of Federations worldwide

– Athens

– UK AM Federation

– New federations based on open standards

What is OpenAthens?

• Accommodates a range of IdP options

• Provides a SP capability

• Custom user interface (MyAthens)

• Technical support, with SLAs

• Bulk upload, self registration, Account Activation

IdP options

Athens DA - proprietary software supported by EduservShibboleth - opensource software, community support

1. Managed Directory• Eduserv holds institution’s user identifiers and attributes.

• Secure web based interface

• Bulk upload / self registration / Account activation

2. Local Authentication• AthensDA or Shibboleth

• Refers authentication to the institution

• Assertion of authorisation from your directory services

• SSO for internal and external resources

• Avoids data uploads or self registration

SP Options – OpenAthens SP

• Software Platform and installation support

• Modular architecture– Athens

– Shibboleth (SAML)

– OpenID

– Cardspace

Local Authentication using Athens DA University of Surrey

• Reduce the Administration of Classic Athens

• Provide unified SSO with Athens DA

• 18,500 users, JISC band D

• Started Feb 05, completed Nov 06

• Library budget £1.8M/year



• Funded with IT services budget

• Low capital expenditure

• Substantial manpower requirement– IT services – 15 weeks

– Technical development 2.5 weeks

– Testing 3 weeks



“Surrey has a lean staffing structure, and does not have extensive in-house technical expertise. The implementation of Athens DA could however be achieved within their in-house capability and capacity, with external support provided by Eduserv when required.”


Why use OpenAthens?

• Easy to implement

• Continuity

• Proven resilience

• Interoperability

• Easy to use

Why use OpenAthens?

• Peace of mind

• Predictable costs

• Cost effective

• Flexible

• Future proofed

Costs

• Cost will be shared amongst all institutions using the service

Subscribers

CostShibboleth IdPs in the UK AM Federation wishing to remain in the Athens Federation need to subscribe to OpenAthens

Athens IdPs wishing to participate in the UK AM Federation will be able to do so with OpenAthens

- 15%

- 40%

400

Predictable costs

JISC Band Published price previously announced

New price in the light of anticipated higher take-up

Price if over 300 institutions participate

Price if over 400 institutions participate

A £9,500 £8,075 £6,650 £5,700

B £8,500 £7,225 £5,950 £5,100

C £7,500 £6,375 £5,250 £4,500

D £6,500 £5,525 £4,550 £3,900

E £5,500 £4,675 £3,850 £3,300

F £4,500 £3,825 £3,150 £2,700

G £3,500 £2,975 £2,450 £2,100

H £2,500 £2,125 £1,750 £1,500

I £1,500 £1,275 £1,050 £900

J £800 £680 £560 £480

Prices will be fixed on the number of OpenAthens Commitment forms returned by 30 th May 2008. Prices for the forthcoming academic year will be confirmed in June 2008.Institutions that commit to a three-year subscription will secure the benefits of the reduced prices for the entire period. For institutions who do not wish to make such a commitment we guarantee that the price for 2009/2010 and for 2010/2011 will not exceed the 2007/2008 price in column 1.

UK AM Federation participation with OpenAthens

• Overcomes the barriers of participation now

– Cost

– Technical resources

– Time

• Positive user experience

• Membership of the Athens Federation

To subscribe to OpenAthens

• OpenAthens commitment form by 30th May 08

• Final discounted prices confirmed in June

• Licences for will be distributed asap

• Institutions can formally subscribe anytime!

http://www.athensams.net/federations/openathens/benefits_of_openathens_subscriptions

Letter of application to join UK AM Federation

UK Federation Operator,JANET (UK), Lumen House, ibrary Avenue, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus,Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0SG

On behalf of [INSTITUTION] I write to apply for membership of the UK Access Management Federation for Education and Research. I confirm that [INSTITUTION] agrees to be bound by the UK Federation's Rules of Membership, as published on their

website.

We will outsource our identity provision to Eduserv as detailed below:The name and postal address of the external organisation providing the outsourcing service.

EduservQueen Anne House11 Charlotte StreetBathBA1 2NE

Contact information for the Management Liaison at Eduserv. [email protected]

The entity ID of the institution which Eduserv proposes to use on behalf of the applicant.

Your domain, e.g. www.your_institute.ac.uk

Identifier assigned to the institution by the Eduserv. Your Athens organisation ID, e.g. 7125423

The security domain(s) that the institution grants authorisation to Eduserv to assert on its behalf.

Your domain (as above)

Yours faithfully,<Senior Officer at INSTITUTION>

http://www.athensams.net/federations/ukfederation

Impact on the UK AM Federation

• >100 institutions intend to subscribe to OpenAthens

• >50 Institutions have returned a commitment form

• 25 institutions have nominated Eduserv as their outsourced IdP

• Around 50% of UK AM Federation members will outsource

Summary

Its your choice what you do ….

And you are now responsible for the costs!


2. Remain in Athens Federation

3. Remain in Athens & also join UK AM Federation

4. Join UK AM Federation

Summary

Its your choice ….


2. Remain in Athens Federation - OpenAthens

3. Remain in Athens & also join UK AM Federation - OpenAthens

4. Join UK AM Federation – In-house Vs outsource

Summary

Participation in UK AM Federation

1. In-house

– Develop, run & support own IdP based on SAML

– Run own IdP provided and supported by a 3rd party

2. Outsource e.g. Eduserv’s OpenAthens service

– Managed directory (Classic Athens)

– Local Authentication (Athens DA, Shibboleth etc)

Summary

• One size does not fit all

• We are here to help you– Tel AIM Helpdesk 01225 474380

– Email [email protected]

– Site visits [email protected]

– Web http://www.athensams.net/federations/ukfederation

• Eduserv Road show– 18th March, Woburn House, London

– http://www.eduserv.org.uk/events/Eduserv%20Regional%20Seminars

Why OpenAthens?Feedback from Institutions

Feedback from institutions

Arts institute at Bournemouth, Aston University, Barnsley College, Bath Spa University, Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council, Bournemouth University, Bridgend College, Cambridge Regional College, Chesterfield College, City of Bath College, Colege Morgannwg, College of St Mark & St John, Croydon College, Farnborough College of Technology, Franklin College, Grimsby Institute of F & HE, Hartlepool College of FE, Hertford Regional College, Hillcroft College,

Hugh Baird College, Kingston Maurward College, Liverpool John Moores University, Long Road Sixth Form College, Luton Sixth Form College, Maryvale

Institute, Medical Research Council (MRC), Middlesex University, Nelson & Colne College, New College Durham, North Hertfordshire College, Northumbria

University, Norwich School of Art & Design, Queen Margaret University College, Royal Agricultural College (RAC), Royal College of Music, Sir George Monoux

College, South Downs College, South Eastern Regional College, South Nottingham College, Sparsholt College Hampshire, St George's, University of

London, St. Helen's College, St. Mary's University College, Twickenham, Stevenson College Edinburgh, The College of West Anglia, The Henley College, The Sixth Form College Farnborough, Trinity & All Saints College, University of

Chichester, University of Cumbria, University of Derby, University of East Anglia, University of Keele, University of Lincoln, University of Manchester, University of Northumbria at Newcastle, University of Paisley, University of Reading, University of the West of England (UWE), Wellcome Trust Sanger

Institute, Worcester Sixth Form College, York St John University, Abingdon & Witney College, Bishop Grosseteste University College, Oxford Brookes

University College, Stockton Riverside College, Shipley College …

Impact on internal IT resources

• No/little impact on busy internal IT resources

• Flexible and future proofed

• Lower risk than implementing own IdP

• Uncertainty over the maturity & stability of Shibboleth

• Lack the technical resources, knowledge and skills

• Not a priority for internal IT

Costs

• Affordable

• Cost effective

• Internal resources better spent on other things

Maintaining the user experience

• Supported

• 24/7 monitoring

• Satisfaction with current Athens service

• Users are familiar with Athens

• MyAthens portal

• Easy to implement & administer

• Control

• Simple transition

UK AM Federation membership

• Possibility of sharing resources in the future

• Experience of the benefits now

• Seamless participation

Documents

Participating in Athens & UK AM Federation with OpenAthens [email protected] 07879 633558