The public sector, particularly higher and further education, has been leading the way in access and identity management for many years (The case for federated ID management, 8 October). Indeed, 98 per cent of UK colleges and universities currently provide staff and students with secure access to thousands of academic information resources via the Athens service.

The sector has built on this expertise and in early 2007 launched the UK Access Management Federation. The purpose of the federation is to formalise access for thousands of students, teachers and researchers to multiple online information resources, with a single username and password.

CA’s Simon Perry suggests that federated access and identity management will become a mainstream technology in the next couple of years, with some banks and EU bodies experimenting in the field already. For UK colleges and universities, federated access is not a thing of the future, but a reality. To date, more than 100 institutions have joined the federation, many using OpenAthens, which offers cost-effective participation.

Ed Zedlewski, Eduserv