What is OpenAthens?

OpenAthens is a framework of software and services that provides supported membership of the UK Access Management Federation for Education and Research. It enables organisations to join the Federation while continuing to enjoy the reliability, user-friendliness and support associated with the current Athens service. Engaging with Shibboleth-based federations through OpenAthens also allows entirely seamless transition from your existing Athens service – while the economies of a shared service will make OpenAthens the most cost effective route to Shibboleth identity provision for most organisations. It also enables you to become a Service Provider through our OpenAthens SP platform.

How do I join the UK Access Management Federation using OpenAthens?

We have produced some guidelines for joining the Federation and OpenAthens. If you have any questions or queries about joining the Federation or OpenAthens, drop us an email at federation.liaison@eduserv.org.uk.

What can OpenAthens offer my organisation?

There are two OpenAthens directory options available for organisations:

Managed Directory
In this option (as with existing Athens operation) Eduserv holds the organisation’s user identifiers and attributes. These can be delivered to Eduserv through familiar bulk upload and/or self-registration processes across a secure web based interface. This mode provides long-established ease of use for administrators, and the security of highly resilient replicated databases updated in near real time.
Local Authentication
As with AthensDA, this mode refers authentication to the organisation. Eduserv provides the organisation with a software agent that enables the OpenAthens service to request and receive an assertion of authentication from the organisation’s directory services. This mode enables single sign-on for both internal and external resources and avoids the need for data uploads or self-registration.

We expect many organisations will subscribe to the Managed Directory option for the foreseeable future. Others may subscribe to the Managed Directory now but in due course transit to Local Authentication as their internal directory services mature. organisations currently using AthensDA can move immediately and seamlessly to OpenAthens with their Local Authentication implementation.

In addition, for organisations that wish to make content available as a service provider to other UK Access Management Federation members OpenAthens SP software and installation support is included as part of your OpenAthens licence.

For details on OpenAthens pricing, please refer to our How much will it cost? page.

Why use OpenAthens?

Ease of implementation - Joining the UK Access Management Federation with OpenAthens requires no costly development time or service delivery resource. Eduserv takes responsibility for both technical and policy compatibility with service providers.

Seamless transition- OpenAthens provides familiar web-based user and administrator interfaces.

Proven resilience - Eduserv’s Athens service has delivered over 99.999% uptime since its inception, with full data replication across multiple sites.

Ease of use - OpenAthens includes all the features developed in Athens to support administrators and librarians, including customisable user portals, stats reports, bulk uploads and self registration.

Peace of mind - OpenAthens is a managed service with an ITIL-compliant service desk, 24*7 infrastructure monitoring, and SLAs.

Predictable costs - The total cost to the organisation is the fixed annual OpenAthens subscription, without the costs arising from development, delivery, or support resources required for an independent implementation of Shibboleth.

Economy - OpenAthens delivers the economies of a shared service – with all participants enjoying the benefits of the solutions developed.

Progression - OpenAthens will manage the progression to new standards as these emerge, avoiding further demands on the internal resources of organisations. OpenAthens also allows organisations to move from an outsourced managed directory to local authentication if and when they wish to.

Please refer to our guidelines for joining the Federation through OpenAthens