This activity is the continuation of the former IdP as a Service Business case activity, which goals and direction was fundamentally changed. It is about designing an open source software targeted at NRENS that is capable of automating the process of deploying and managing IdPs. This software shall offer a platform that can be used by institutions to configure, create and deploy an IdP through an easy to use graphical user interface (GUI). Instead of just implementing such a software, an open design of such a platform shall be defined based on the features needed in the R&E community. This design shall be used to create a reference implementation for the open source community, but it will enable other vendors to offer similar products as well. 

The activity will contain the following tasks:

IdP as a Service Software Design

Creation of a specification that describes a Minimum reference architecture and Minimal Viable Product definition for software design package for a software solution that includes a specification and reference architecture. The specification will define the features and requirements needed according to a minimal viable product of an IdP as a Service platform in the context of Research and Education. Based on this specification a technical reference architecture will be designed, which supports these requirements and fits seamlessly into existing R&E federations. We validate this against software. This package will be validated by the eduGAIN community and present it as a baseline for any to make it the official reference design to be used in IdP as a Service offeringofferings.

This way we offer value as we set the baseline for any requirements and potential procurement by NRENs or federations.

Creation of a Reference implementationWe create a Reference implementation of the above ‘IdP as a Service baseline’. This

Based on the formerly created design, a reference software will be implemented. This reference implementation provides a simple, easily deploy-able solution that offers techncally includes all the features of the ‘IdP as a Service baseline’. Support is however out of scope. It is an open source product which may be picked up by whoever wants to use it. We may support an NREN community around this product. We should make running this IdP as a Service platform as easy as deploying a Wordpress instance. Yet clearly, to offer such a platform properly and securely, much more is needed, which is left to the operators.

This way we create a product that can be used to validate the baseline. At the same time we offer a solution to those NRENs who need something and want to offer such a platform themselves. Finally we enable commercial vendors to offer a solution based on this if they want to do so.

specified features using the reference architecture. This solution will be provided to the community as a publicly available open source software including technical documentation. This software is intended to be used by NRENS to create their own IdP as a Service offering for institutions in their country.

There won't be any official product, service or software support provided by GÉANT. The further development of this reference design and software is up to the community. The usage of these resources won't be restricted, so everyone and every organization is free to build their own solution on top. This applies to non-profit organizations as well as commercial vendors, which may offer similar productsVendor products
We invite vendors to (self) asses their service offerings against the above ‘IdP as a Service baseline’. We publish these results in our community. They may offer a solution based on the reference implementation, but now including support features and possibly additional technical features. However if they have another product they want to use that is fine as long as it meets the baseline needs.