New Brunswick And Prince Edward Island Colleges And Universities Get A Boost Into The Cloud
January 19th, 2015
CANARIE, a vital component of Canada’s digital infrastructure supporting research, education and innovation, today announced that the New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island Education Computer Network (ECN) will partner with CANARIE to support remote access to cloud-based collaboration tools and services.
As more institutions take advantage of the cost and process efficiencies of these services, identity and access management protocols become a priority. These protocols ensure only securely accredited and validated users can remotely access services and resources, seamlessly.
ECN partnered with CANARIE’s Canadian Access Federation (CAF) to implement Federated Single Sign-On (FSSO) services for the consortium. FSSO enables users to access services and resources hosted by external organizations using their home institution’s identity credentials.
This process drives significant cost and process efficiencies for both users and institutions. FSSO removes the requirement for institutions (and departments within institutions where the resources are housed) to devote time and money to support remote users. It also enables a group of institutions, like the members of ECN, to share cloud-based resources and reduce per-institution cost. For end users, the process is seamless and enables rapid and secure access to resources supporting teaching, learning and research.
CANARIE will provide guidance in governance, infrastructure, tools and consulting in support of the project.
According to Scott Chamberlain, Senior Project Manager, ITS at the University of New Brunswick (UNB), “For the first time ever, an individual who is not a member of UNB, was able to successfully log onto UNB- supported services using their own institution’s credentials. We could not have achieved this tremendous success without the advanced infrastructure and resources provided by the CAF team.”
“CANARIE is excited to have an entire community, like the ECN, recognize the value of federated identity management as the critical foundation for maximizing the value of shared IT services,” says Wendy Petersen, Program Manager of the Canadian Access Federation. “As more and more institutions connect to CAF, the door is opened for additional shared services and cost-savings opportunities for IT departments.”
In support of this initiative, CANARIE welcomes ECN members including the Maritime College of Forest Technology, Université de Moncton and Holland College as new participants in the Canadian Access Federation.
For more information, please contact:
Ela Ienzi
Communications Manager
CANARIE
(613) 943-5432
Ela.Ienzi@canarie.ca