Cloud Computing | News

Radiant Logic Adds User Authentication for Cloud-Based Services

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 08/01/11

Radiant Logic has launched a new suite that will allow its customers to provide users with access to programs hosted both internally on the network and in the cloud.

RadiantOne Virtual Directory Server Plus offers a configuration wizard to simplify the work of virtualizing and aggregating an organization's various directories. The new version also includes a caching feature that resides between the directory sources and the applications to speed up queries and maximize data "freshness," particularly useful when the data sources are unavailable or running slowly; VDS+ also supports creation of dynamic groups based on attributes, not just user roles.

It also ties in to the new RadiantOne Cloud Federation Service (CFS). A challenge of cloud services is that each cloud application provider may use its own identity and access management scheme, which makes federated operations--the trusted sharing of processes and data across disparate systems--more difficult to achieve.

In combination with VDS+, CFS manages identity across a mix of identity stores, including LDAP directories, databases, and Web services. When a user logs in, the cloud service provides links to applications hosted internally and online, preventing the need for additional authentication by those cloud services.

CFS includes a service that authenticates users and generates vendor-specific security tokens to deliver to applications. CFS can also authenticate identities belonging to different Active Directory domains and forests, extending single-sign-on functionality to users residing in different AD forests.

CFS is standards-astute, working with federation standards SAML 2.0 and WS Federation and other authentication mechanisms, such as Windows Azure Access Control Service and Active Directory Federation Service, as well as Web access management products, including CA's SiteMinder and Ping Identity's PingFederate and the open source OpenAM and Shibboleth. The company said in a statement that cloud services supported include Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Salesforce, Google Apps for Education, and Cisco WebEx.