Norman WisemanJISC Head of Programmes

Presentation to CNISeattle, December 1998

ATHENS ATHENS

One Year OnOne Year On

Joint Information Systems Committee

Joint Information Systems Committee

Programmei) Reprise

ii) Current uses of ATHENS

iii) Feedback

iv) Lessons and challenges

Joint Information Systems Committee

Joint Information Systems Committee

1. Reprise

The story so far ……..

Joint Information Systems Committee

Joint Information Systems Committee

Background

• JISC is the Joint Information Systems Committee

• JISC receives funding from all of the UK higher

education funding bodies

• JISC provides network and other infrastructure

services to 1.5 million students and 200,000 staff

in UK higher education

Joint Information Systems Committee

Reprise

Drivers:Growth in use of electronic services

• Simplify administration / increase efficiency

Protection of rights:

• Suppliers

• Intermediaries & Customers

Development of new markets:

• Lifelong learning and distance learners

• Government initiatives - UFI, NGFLJoint Information Systems Committee

Reprise

Strategy:

• Pragmatic

• Flexible

• Quick

• Short term

Develop existing product - ATHENSATHENSDevelopment work done by NISS, a JISC Service

Started April 1997, launched November 1997

Joint Information Systems Committee

Reprise

ATHENS:

An access management service controlling access to distributed resources on a network

• Single, unique userid and password for all services• WWW, Telnet and Other resources • Resilient• Scaleable• Free to HE• Recommended for all JISC Services & Projects

Joint Information Systems Committee

Reprise

ATHENS Administration - details

Joint Information Systems Committee

Reprise

ATHENSdB server

API

SybaseRDBMS

Network

Information server

Administrator

SecureAuthentication

ATHENS Agent

Protected

UnprotectedDocuments

Athens Operation

Joint Information Systems Committee

Reprise

ATHENSdB server

API

SybaseRDBMS

Network

Information server

ATHENS Agent

WWW client

SecureAuthentication

Protected

UnprotectedDocuments

User Id andPassword Challenge

Telnet client Bespoke client

2. Current uses of ATHENS

How it has been used since the service was launched.

Joint Information Systems Committee

Joint Information Systems Committee

Service Statistics:

• No. of DSP : 7

• No. of registered resources : 61

• No. of sites : 237

• Total administrators : 1,209

• Total accounts : 341,000

• Number of daily accesses : 30,000

• Peak Load : 10/second

Joint Information Systems Committee

Current Uses of ATHENS

• Annual running costs – $1000 per institution per year– about 50c per account per year– may increase

• Software development costs

• Development partner for NISS

Joint Information Systems Committee

Current Uses of ATHENS

Service Costs:

Joint Information Systems Committee

Current Uses of ATHENS

ATHENS ResilienceATHENS

Resilience

*UK Outline Map based on Manchester City College Web site original

MAN

Backbone

Site link to b/bone

Scottish I/connect

Non-MAN site

ATHENS server

Data Service Provider Issues:

Anonymity - culture change

Licensing - additional functionality

Profiles - many possibilities

Managing access - variations on a theme

Joint Information Systems Committee

Current Uses of ATHENS

USER Profiles

Joint Information Systems Committee

Current Uses of ATHENS

ATHENSdB server

API

SybaseRDBMS

Network

Information server

User

SecureAuthentication

ATHENS Agent

Protected

UnprotectedDocuments

Profile

Sensitive

Handling Sensitive Documents

Joint Information Systems Committee

Current Uses of ATHENS

ATHENSdB server

API

SybaseRDBMS

Network

Information server

ATHENS Agent

WWW client

SecureAuthentication

Protected

UnprotectedDocuments

User Id andPassword Challenge

Profile

Proxy/certificate Operation

Joint Information Systems Committee

Current Uses of ATHENS

ATHENSdB server

API

SybaseRDBMS

Network

Information server

ATHENS Agent

WWW client

Protected

UnprotectedDocuments

SecureAuthentication

User Id andPassword Challenge

Certificate/

Cookie

Sensitive

Certificate systems

Joint Information Systems Committee

Current Uses of ATHENS

ATHENSdB server

API

SybaseRDBMS

Network

Information server

ATHENS Agent

WWW client

Protected

UnprotectedDocuments

ProfileCertificate

Server

• Commercial uses– Piraeus / ISOS– International Consumer products company

• Europe

• Australia

Joint Information Systems Committee

Current Uses of ATHENS

New Users:

• Training and nurturing

• Bulk uploading

• Account management

• Progressive improvements to interface

• Statistics service– volume– processes

Joint Information Systems Committee

Current Uses of ATHENS

Issues for Information Services:

3. Feedback

What users and information services staff have told us about the ATHENS service.

Joint Information Systems Committee

Joint Information Systems Committee

• JIBS Survey

• Two samples– first response 32 sites, 10 anonymous

– second response 39 sites, 3 anonymous

• Sites represent from 50 to 25000 users• http://www.athens.ac.uk/info/exchexp.htm

Joint Information Systems Committee

Feedback

Independent Survey

• Experience with managing accounts (personal, self registration, groups)

• Comments on loading information

• Agent for culture change

• Licence management

• The process - ‘no problems’

Joint Information Systems Committee

Feedback

Synthesis of responses:

4. Lessons and Challenges

The lessons that have been learnt so far, both surprising and unsurprising, and the challenges that lie ahead.

Joint Information Systems Committee

Joint Information Systems Committee

• User skills– important lessons for alternative solutions

• Data Service Provider requirements– Single interface to manage multiple security models – DSP’s want and need to tailor service.

• Institutional investment – significant resource commitment must be protected

Joint Information Systems Committee

Lessons and Challenges

Lessons

• Development of full service

• Three year commitment

• Functional improvements for services - new models for licensing, access, charging etc

• Coordination with other JISC security initiatives

Joint Information Systems Committee

Lessons and Challenges

JISC Proposals for ATHENS

• eLib Phase 3 projects (hybrid libraries)

• Authentication workshop

• Institutional demands for local implementation

• Working with publishers and other content providers

• International work

Joint Information Systems Committee

Lessons and Challenges

Future Input

• Managing the growing variety of systems and suppliers

• Roaming across the digital landscape

• Scalability

• Finding an ‘Internet’ solution

Joint Information Systems Committee

Lessons and Challenges

Challenges

• Original goals achieved

• Access management appears as important as authentication technology

• ATHENS has shown that you can– manage many different security models – minimise impact on users– minimise management overhead for information

servicesJoint Information Systems Committee

Lessons and Challenges

Conclusions

Joint Information Systems Committee

CNI, Seattle 1998

Joint InformationSystems Committee

Networks and InnovativeServices for Higher Education