Gale to implement Athens Single Sign-On

Gale announced their intention earlier this month to upgrade their Athens implementation in InfoTrac to Athens Single Sign On, AthensSSO. The scheduled date is the first part of the second quarter 2004. This is the final Athens protected web resource to implement AthensSSO, and has implications beyond Single Sign On capability for users.

Athens Devolved Authentication (AthensDA) is built on top of AthensSSO; this means that AthensDA institutions will now be able to access all Athens-protected resources. Devolved Authentication allows an organisation to nominate a trusted authentication system of their own, for access to Athens protected resources. Their users will no longer need separate Athens usernames, thus reducing the management and administration of these usernames, and improving the user experience. Organisations who have adopted AthensDA report a significant reduction in user queries, particularly from distance learners. For more information including Case Studies, see our AthensDA section.

AthensDA can also be integrated with a local application such as a VLE or portal, giving one-shot authentication with seamless secure access to Athens-protected resources. The Athens portfolio of resources currently stands at 260. For the full list see our List of protected resources.

February 2004