Intel Joins Liberty Alliance

Industry trade group The Liberty Alliance Project is adding computer chip maker Intel to its list of members.

The organization is developing a standard way to verify user identities across Web services; so that a surfer might have to enter a log-in and password only once when moving among numerous sites, for example. This approach is similar to the strategy Microsoft has with its Passport authentication. The group has had ongoing talks with Microsoft about compatibility between their approaches. Intel, of course, is a longtime Microsoft partner.

Support Acknowledged

Intel will join the Management Board for the group, which develops and promotes open standards management of user identities on computer networks, according to a Liberty Alliance spokesperson.

The Management Board is the highest level in the Liberty Alliance organization and is responsible for overall governance of the group, including legal and financial operations. Management Board members also get final voting authority for all Liberty-sponsored specifications, according to the Liberty Alliance.

Intel's decision to join the group signals wide market support for Liberty's approach to federated identity, the spokesperson says.

"It's something we're pleased to see. We regard it as a good thing for the health of the Alliance to attract leaders in their space, and Intel is certainly that," says Michael Barrett, president of the Liberty Alliance.

Barrett acknowledges that the prospect of a hardware company like Intel joining a software standards group might strike some as odd. However, Intel employs many software developers who write code that ends up in firmware and on silicon and uses Web services internally, he says.

"It's entirely reasonable for a hardware manufacturer to look at [the Liberty Alliance] protocols to enable their business," he says.

Intel Rep Ready

Intel will be represented on the Liberty Alliance Management Board by George Goodman, director of system software for Intel's corporate technology group, Barrett says.

"Authentication and identity management are critical to the success of new computer and communications usages," says Goodman in an e-mail statement. "We are looking forward to working with our customers and member companies to make implementation [of Liberty Alliance standards] a reality across all the hardware platforms we provide."

Last November, the Liberty Alliance published its Phase 2 specifications, completing the organization's Identity Web Services Framework. That framework gives companies a road map for designing and deploying Web services that share user authentication information, which simplifies the management of user identities and passwords between Web services.

Other Management Board members include Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, and VeriSign.