Federating a Distributed World: Asserting Next-Generation Identity Standards

Conclusion The emerging market for identity federation creates a dilemma for enterprise architects. With the freshness of federation protocols on the market—and some still under development—the technology's ubiquity remains in question. Some observers doubt federation protocols will achieve sufficient market adoption to make credentials and identity information broadly portable. However, many software vendors are heavily vested in federation technology, both in anticipation of its popularity and in acknowledgement of its role in the success of web services. But federation is not a market fad; the industry's need for federated identity will force a resolution, and the assertion model is well suited for the role.