Identity management, access specs are rolling along

The concept of streamlined single-sign-on network identity and access management moved forward, with product announcements from prominent vendors, advances in protocol agreements by industry and standards groups, and more visibility among enterprise users. A certain amount of long-term uncertainty remains about which identity-management technology will fit into a given architecture as the applications underlying interorganizational communications depend less on Web browsers and become more capable of standalone interchange. However, the widespread adoption of federated identity - in which users receive trusted access to more than their home network's resources without having to sign on to each new site separately - is reaching critical mass.