Supporting Virtual Organization Lifecycle Management by Dynamic Federated User Provisioning

For highly dynamic Grid scenarios, scalable solutions for resource, service and access management are essential. However, in today’s real world Grid projects, organizations still struggle with system and account management tools that have been designed for intra-organizational use and fail to handle cross-organizational requirements as imposed by Dynamic Virtual Organizations (DVOs). A critical issue in managing the lifecycle of DVOs is the adequate handling of user information when creating and maintaining accounts. Based on a comprehensive Grid scenario, we derive criteria for DVO life cycle management, analyze the shortcomings of existing approaches and present a policy-based approach, which allows for the integration of DVO-management schemes with existing Identity & Access Management (I&AM) systems.