WSO2 announced that it has extended its support for service-oriented architecture (SOA) governance through enhanced authentication. Version 1.5 of the WSO2 Identity Solution for strong Web authentication based on open standards and open source is now generally available and adds support for OpenID, a feature for decentralizing single sign-on. Additionally, WSO2 has joined the OpenID Foundation and is a founding member of the Information Card Foundation, which was launched June 23, 2008.

The WSO2 Identity Solution enables websites, including LAMP1 and Java, to provide strong authentication using information cards that serve as electronic IDs for users. Version 1.5 adds support for OpenID. By basing OpenID support on OpenID4Java, the WSO2 Identity Solution 1.5 offers a very high level of interoperability with other OpenID systems that makes it simple to become an OpenID consumer and/or an OpenID provider. This functionality complements the existing capabilities in the WSO2 Identity Solution around information cards and Microsoft CardSpace technologies, giving enterprises more options than ever for implementing consistent identity management across their Web and SOA applications.

“Electronic IDs, such as OpenID and CardSpace-based information cards, are rapidly gaining popularity as decentralized, user-centric approaches to authentication that eliminate the risks and inconvenience of password-based alternatives,” said Dr. Sanjiva Weerawarana, CEO of WSO2. “By offering both OpenID and CardSpace authentication, version 1.5 of our WSO2 Identity Solution extends our commitment to strong SOA governance by managing and protecting the identities of the many users served by today’s heterogeneous SOAs and Web applications.”

WSO2 OpenID Support Extends Authentication Options
The WSO2 Identity Solution 1.5 features the easy-to-use Identity Provider application for issuing cards, including those based on CardSpace, and OpenIDs for identity management. It is controlled by a simple Web-based management console and supports interoperability with multiple vendors’ OpenID and CardSpace components. The WSO2 Identity Solution 1.5 also provides a Relying Party Component Set, which plugs into most common Web servers to add support for CardSpace and OpenID authentication requests. Additionally, the WSO2 Identity Solution works with enterprises’ current identity directories, such as those based on the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and Microsoft Active Directory, allowing them to leverage their existing infrastructure.

Key features of the WSO2 Identity Solution 1.5 include:

• Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) 2.0 support
• Multi-factor authentication
• Broad OpenID support
• Easy access management, including white-listing and black-listing.
• Heterogeneous support via Relying Parties