From the Trenches at Sun Identity, Part 5: Support for OpenSSO

— Nick Wooler, senior product manager, access and federation management, Sun Microsystems

Nick Wooler, senior product manager for access and federation management at Sun, was previously a key contributor to the xVM Operations Center and Sun Java Enterprise System. Before joining Sun in early 2006, Nick was senior product manager for online assessment software at CTB/McGraw-Hill and, prior to that stint, senior program manager for Internet business solutions at iXL UK.

Over the past six months, enterprise adopters of OpenSSO, Sun's open Web access management project, have been clamoring for support service from Sun—a development that attests to the project's success. In this interview, Nick describes the background, the support choices that are newly available from Sun, and the gains for developers.

Note: Sun OpenSSO Express is an identical twin of OpenSSO, originally called Sun Java System Access Manager. The name change is to emphasize the importance of open source and to ensure nomenclature consistency with Sun's open-source software, such as the OpenSolaris OS, MySQL, and GlassFish.

An Essential Component of Web Software

As a start, Nick draws a diagram of the typical Web software infrastructure, with enterprises on one side and developers on the other. Sun OpenSSO Express offers a commercial product with numerous support options. Since its inception in 2005, OpenSSO and its specifically tailored extensions for access control and federated single sign-on (SSO) have been steadily gaining acceptance from developers worldwide. Currently, the project boasts over 700 members and 60 committers, including external committers, as mentioned at the OpenSSO workshop at CommunityOne, a Sun developer event held in San Francisco in early May.

Nick says that Sun is increasingly hearing emphatic and explicit declarations from enterprise customers—

"We must tie identity with Web services and enable users to create membership accounts."
"Our business calls for collaboration with partnerships to deliver services to customers and employees. We don't want to surrender control of the identities of those customers and employees, however, which makes federation a must."
"To be sure, we'd like to use OpenSSO's latest features, but we also want support. With support, we can use OpenSSO in production or start major development projects and can be assured that experts are just a phone call away in case of problems."

Concurrently, developers, in particular those in small- to medium-size companies, share the same requirements. Because of their companies' size, those developers participate in open-source communities as an efficient way to broaden the technical depth of their organizations, to innovate, and to solve business issues. "Open source really helps in this regard," adds Nick. "Projects like OpenSSO, OpenDS, and MySQL are excellent examples. In essence, open source delivers what enterprises want without having to ask a sales guy for admission to an early-access program. What's more, as in the case of OpenSSO, if you need commercial-quality support, it's now available."

To date, behind the live OpenSSO deployments are major names in various industries. Many deployments are replete with integration with other products and third-party consulting. It's a truly impressive scenario.

Simply making available the software is by far not enough, however. Soon after adoption, most enterprises clamor for support. "That's perfectly understandable, especially from those who are rolling out applications to millions of users. Who doesn't want peace of mind? It all boils down to who you're going to call on in case of production problems on a Saturday night. When you have more time than money, free is great. But when you have more money than time, you want commercial support so that you can file and get solutions for bugs, call on expertise, and be assured of prompt, helpful, and reliable responses."

The OpenSSO release model delivers three types of builds, all available for free download:

Nick points out that a unique aspect of the support model for OpenSSO is that "we require that customers keep pace with our builds." That is, after purchasing a license and support plan, a customer must install the latest stable OpenSSO build—with the most up-to-date features, bug fixes, and RFEs—and deploy it to that customer's environment. Sun stands by to fix bugs or deliver RFEs through the stable builds and provide support, as appropriate. Sun will continue to accept and take advantage of input and contributions from the community. The new support plan, however, enables customers to raise issues and RFEs and access the solutions through one of the releases. That way, customers can take advantage of—early on—the latest OpenSSO capabilities in their deployments and gain a longer cycle for their projects.

Bear in mind that Sun undertakes extensive and thorough testing on every OpenSSO build before its release. Not only does the process contain a comprehensive test harness, which covers 80 percent of the code base, the testing also addresses, for the stable builds, the procedures for upgrades and deployment. "It's detailed and multifaceted, performed by knowledgeable, experienced professionals," assures Nick. That's partly why, as a first step, the Sun support team asks customers who report problems on an outdated stable build to upgrade to the latest stable build.

Nick emphasizes that customers are free to wait until the commercial release becomes available before venturing into deployment. "Ultimately, choice is the keyword. It all boils down to a balancing act: how much risk to take and how much you stand to gain by starting the project now or putting it in production for revenue. That's why we see a market for customers who desire support for OpenSSO because they want to make money today and would like Sun to help them balance their risk," he concludes.

To developers, the support model brings a world of benefits. It means that instead of waiting for the commercial version of Sun OpenSSO Express, they can start projects with OpenSSO and enjoy the benefits of contributing to and collaborating with the community and the assurance of professional support from Sun. In Nick's words, all that translates to "having the best of both worlds."