What is OpenAthens?

The OpenAthens framework of products and services enables organisations to:

manage user identities and their disclosure to internal applications or to external third parties
manage and track user access to internal or external resources
provide users with single sign-on to these resources
restrict access to designated users only (based on the receipt of agreed user identity information)
quickly and easily provide access to protected content for large numbers of users based on, for example, being an employee of a subscribing organisation
provide simple, easy access for users utilising a single sign-on schema that can extend beyond a single organisation's boundaries

OpenAthens does this by extending the Athens service, which was first launched in 1995 to meet the needs of the UK higher and further education community, to support new and emerging open standards for access and identity management.

The major components of the OpenAthens framework are:

OpenAthens MD - a managed directory service with secure web-based access to user credentials and attributes. With this option Eduserv manages your organisation's user identifiers and attributes.

OpenAthens LA - a local authentication software platform that provides single sign-on access to both internal and external resources using the latest open standards. The OpenAthens LA modular architecture minimises the upheaval and cost of adopting new access and identity technologies and standards. With this option Eduserv receives an assertion of authentication from the institution’s directory services.

OpenAthens SP - a software platform that enables providers of protected online resources to deliver secure access to their content. As with OpenAthens LA it enables organisations to take advantage of new access and identity management technologies and standards with reduced impact on busy internal IT resources.

For more information about which OpenAthens component is right for you, please browse these pages or contact us to discuss your needs.