Identity management in GRID computing and Service Oriented Architectures: research and practice

Today, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Grid and Cloudcomputing comprise the key technologies in distributed systems. In systemsfollowing the SOA approach, functionalities are delivered and consumed as services. Given the variety of resources (i.e. data, computing capabilities, applications, etc) aswell as the variation of user-requested Quality of Service (e.g., high performance, fast access, low cost, high media resolution, etc), there is a need for advanced usermanagement, trust establishment and service management mechanisms which adjust, monitor and evaluate service provision according to the users’ requirements andrights. Within this context, security and privacy requirements have become of greatimportance, as well the need for flexible and efficient identity management. Thiseditorial of the special issue “Identity Management in Grid and SOA” discusses theimportance of identity management within SOA and Grid environments. A numberof techniques and existing systems addressing these issues are presented andevaluated. Identity management is considered in various contexts and at differentlevels, including service composition level, system level and inter-system communicationlevel