Using an outsourced provider

When a member organisation wishes to outsource identity provision or service provision to another organisation, a Management Liaison of the requesting organisation must apply in writing, on the organisation’s letterhead, to the federation operator:

UK Federation Operator
JANET(UK)
Lumen House
Library Avenue
Harwell Science and Innovation Campus
Didcot
Oxfordshire OX11 0SG

The application must contain the following information:

  1. The name of the external organisation providing the outsourcing service. This organisation must itself be a member of the federation.
  2. The entityID of the identity provider or service provider which the external organisation proposes to use on behalf of the applicant. (The external organisation should be consulted to obtain this information.)
  3. Any identifier assigned to the applicant by the external organisation.
  4. A contact person within the external organisation.
  5. Where the applicant intends to outsource identity provision, the security domain(s) that the applicant grants authorisation to the external organisation to assert on its behalf. This normally corresponds to the applicant's registered DNS domain(s).

In the case where a member organisation wishes to make use of the Eduserv's OpenAthens service (utilising the "Athens-to-Shibboleth Gateway") as an outsourced Identity Provider, this procedure should be followed.

Note: You may choose to state, in your letter of application to join the UK federation, your intention to outsource to a third party and at the same time provide us with the details above.