Fischer Offers Free Shibboleth Hosting to Higher Ed Organizations

Fischer International Identity is offering free access to its cloud-based Shibboleth Identity Provider system for qualified higher education institutions. The announcement was made at the Educause 2012 conference taking place this week in Denver, CO.

The company, which provides identity management solutions, reported it will provide two years of Shibboleth IdP hosting and management with support for up to 5,000 users free of charge. Shibboleth is a federated identity system that offers a solution for single sign-on between disparate enterprise systems. It comprises a number of free and open source software components, such as centralized and embedded discovery, identity provider tools, and metadata aggregation, and incorporates open standards for secure, cross-institution communications. Support for federated identity is a requirement for institutions to participate in InCommon. According to Fischer, by using its hosted system, institutions can meet the InCommon technical requirements without any up-front costs. (Institutions that qualify for InCommon membership include accredited two- and four-year degree granting institutions, research organizations, and sponsored partners of higher education institutions.)

"This service will allow additional institutions to quickly and cost-effectively deploy InCommon," said Jack Suess, InCommon steering committee chair and CIO and vice president of IT at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in a statement released by Fischer. "Fischer's program will allow institutions to share in the same benefits as the current 317 higher education InCommon participants--leveraging InCommon to easily integrate some of the 125 InCommon commercial service providers and 28 Internet NET+ Services in place today."

"Fischer is dedicated to the advancement of education, and we have been impressed with what InCommon, Internet2 NET+ Services, and OARnet are doing to advance education," said Andrew Sroka, president and CEO of Fischer, also in a prepared statement. "We are pleased to help additional institutions join InCommon, begin to leverage the cloud offerings available through InCommon and NET+ Services, and will develop a model to obtain affordable and high-value identity services through regional providers like OARnet."

Fischer International Identity is exhibiting at the Educause conference in Denver this week in booth 306. Additional details can be found at ignite-federation.com.

About the Author

David Nagel is the former editorial director of 1105 Media's Education Group and editor-in-chief of THE Journal, STEAM Universe, and Spaces4Learning. A 30-year publishing veteran, Nagel has led or contributed to dozens of technology, art, marketing, media, and business publications.

He can be reached at [email protected]. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrnagel/ .


Featured

  • open laptop in a college classroom with holographic AI icons like a brain and data charts rising from the screen

    4 Ways Universities Are Using Google AI Tools for Learning and Administration

    In a recent blog post, Google shared an array of education customer stories, showcasing ways institutions are using AI tools like Gemini and NotebookLM to transform both learning and administrative tasks.

  • illustration of a human head with a glowing neural network in the brain, connected to tech icons on a cool blue-gray background

    Meta Launches Stand-Alone AI App

    Meta Platforms has introduced a stand-alone artificial intelligence app built on its proprietary Llama 4 model, intensifying the competitive race in generative AI alongside OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and xAI.

  • three main icons—a cloud, a user profile, and a padlock—connected by circuit lines on a blue abstract background

    Report: Identity Has Become a Critical Security Perimeter for Cloud Services

    A new threat landscape report points to new cloud vulnerabilities. According to the 2025 Global Threat Landscape Report from Fortinet, while misconfigured cloud storage buckets were once a prime vector for cybersecurity exploits, other cloud missteps are gaining focus.

  • Stylized illustration showing cybersecurity elements like shields, padlocks, and secure cloud icons on a neutral, minimalist digital background

    Microsoft Announces Security Advancements

    Microsoft has announced major security advancements across its product portfolio and practices. The work is part of its Secure Future Initiative (SFI), a multiyear cybersecurity transformation the company calls the largest engineering project in company history.