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Identity Federation Modernization Roadmap

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The identity federation modernization roadmap provides transparency regarding the ongoing initiatives affecting our system identity federation.

Program Objectives

The identity federation modernization strategy is a collective effort to achieve the following outcomes:

Disseminate identity, credential and access management (ICAM) responsibility to system members and trusted third-parties (e.g., ID.me)

System members are best positioned to validate the identity of their active users (students, faculty, staff, contractors, and other affiliates). Effective ICAM makes the most sense when administered at this level.

Deprecate the system-level centralized identity stores used for authentication (e.g., TAMUS UIN)

Transferring ICAM to the member and trusted third-party level allows the A&M System to deprecate legacy username/password identity and authentication systems, reducing the attack surface, management overhead, and cost associated with administering multi-factor authentication for large constiuencies of users from across the system.

Leverage the leading research and education authentication federation--InCommon--to provide multi-lateral identity federation for the A&M System

The InCommon Federation has a robust infrastructure purpose-built to support research and education institutions engaging in federated identity transactions with other R&E institutions. The self-service provisioning and management, and dedicated support from Internet2, provides a resilient identity federation to support the A&M System for years to come.

Roadmap

TAMUS SSO Institution Login

Enable system members to use institutional SSO when accessing the TAMUS shared services portal (TAMUS SSO).

Plan
Pilot
Operate
Scale
Deprecate
FY24
Operate
Add member IdP metadata to TAMUFederation
Done
FY25
Scale
Transition active faculty and staff from UIN to institution login
Done
Depends on:FY24
FY27
Deprecate
Current
Deprecate UIN login for all users
Planned
Depends on:FY25FY26 Q3

TAMUS SSO adoption of ID.me

Adopt ID.me for member affiliates--pre-hires, retirees and beneficiaries.

Plan
Pilot
Operate
Scale
Deprecate
FY25
Plan
Integrate ID.me as an authentication source for TAMUS SSO
Done
FY26 Q1
Pilot
Current
Select members to pilot use of ID.me for pre-hires and retirees
In progress
FY26 Q3
Scale
Rollout ID.me availability to remaining system members
Planned
FY27
Deprecate
Deprecate UIN login for affiliates
Planned

Transition TAMUFederation to InCommon Federation

Replace TAMUFederation metadata aggregate as system's identity federation with InCommon Federation.

Plan
Pilot
Operate
Scale
Deprecate
FY26 Q1
Plan
Current
Enroll system member IdPs in InCommon Federation
Slipped
FY26 Q1
Pilot
Current
Pilot member InCommon authentication with Cyber applications
In progress
FY26 Q2
Pilot
Test InCommon Federation metadata with TAMUS SSO Dev/Test
Planned
Depends on:FY26Q1.1
FY26 Q3
Operate
Transition member SSO buttons to InCommon Federation IdPs
Planned
FY26 Q4
Deprecate
Deprecate TAMUFederation for TAMUS SSO
Planned
Depends on:FY26 Q3

Adopt InCommon Baseline Expectations

Replace TAMUFederation metadata aggregate as system's identity federation with InCommon Federation.

Plan
Pilot
Operate
Scale
Deprecate
FY27
Operate
Raise member awareness to adopt InCommon Baseline Expectations
Planned