Today, Sun and Microsoft demonstrated cross-domain single sign-on into each other's environments using new specifications the two companies have been working on jointly, namely the Web Single Sign-on Metadata Exchange protocol and the Interoperability Profile.

You can view the entire webcast here. Pat Patterson, a Sun co-worker, shows up around 17 minutes into the press briefing, but you should watch the whole thing.

Pat and his Microsoft counterpart, Don Schmidt, do a great job of describing federation, how it works and the specific benefits companies can achieve as a result.

Way to go, Pat!