The Sun Identity Team is kicking off a monthly webinar program outlining our overall portfolio and how it can help you solve everyday identity challenges. The first session will be held on February 18 at 8AM PT and will provide an overview around how Sun approaches everyday identity and offer an overview of our methodology to build strong identity foundation that lasts. So . . . what are you waiting for! Register for our life changing webinar now!

The OpenSSO Project is soliciting feedback on their Early Access Build -- OpenSSO Express Build 5. With the release of this build, community members now have the opportunity to participate in the Early Access (EA) program for Sun's next commercial offering. Review the Early Access documentation and hammer away at Express Build 5! Send your EA feedback to opensso.eafeedback@dev.java.net so we can make the product perfect. Thanks in advance!

The fourth interview in Sun Developer Network technical author Marina Sum's 'From the Trenches' series, sees her talking to Federated Access Manager architect Rajeev Angal about Virtual Federation, a new approach to allowing legacy applications to interact across enterprise boundaries. Read the interview for an overview of Virtual Federation, dig a little deeper into the technology (Secure Attribute Exchange is the old name for Virtual Federation), then go grab the latest OpenSSO build and try it out!

Third in Sun Developer Network tech author Marina Sum's series of interviews with Sun's identity team is Daniel Raskin, senior product line manager for access and federation management at Sun. Daniel lifts the lid on some of the cool new features coming up in Sun Federated Access Manager 8.0 (and, of course, available NOW in OpenSSO) specifically designed to simplify federation deployments, including Fedlets, Virtual Federation, the Federation Validator and more.

Read the article for the inside scoop!

If you've taken a look at federated identity, but become bogged down in acronyms (SSO, SP, SAML???) and jargon (why do I need an identity provider? I already have an identity), then you'll be happy to read identity diva Eve Maler's recent article on the topic - Federated Identity Through the Eyes of the Deployer. Eve and regular SDN identity writer Marina Sum walk you through the basics of federated identity - what it is, why you might want it and what questions to ask as you architect a federated identity system.

If you're wondering about the illustration - Eve is an authority on matters XML, being instrumental in the creation of XML and related standards such as SAML - in fact, you can blame Eve for some of those acronyms

Pat reports on the first build of FAM 8.0 as part of the OpenSSO community. This will provide convergence with Access Manager and Federation Manager features, in an Open Source model, like GlassFish. Check out the architecture (blog, wiki) and the roadmap (blog, diagram). New features include much improved usability, Access and Federation Manager Features, Identity Services and Web Services Security - more details here.

Download it here, play with it and give feedback at the USERS list. I think FAM/OpenSSO will have a big impact on the industry; check it out.