CC*IIE IAM: Enhancing Vassar Research and Collaboration through Identity and Access Management

Vassar College, Poughkeepsie NY

Investigators

Abstract

This project enhances research collaboration at Vassar College through the implementation of an Identity and Access Management (IAM) system. The IAM supports access to and security of distributed scientific research efforts and other applications with broader impacts. Vassar researchers are actively engaged in collaborative intra- and extramural multidisciplinary research, and these projects regularly collect and exchange data with research collaborators and teams at other institutions in Virtual Organizations (VOs). Vassar College researchers were previously challenged to create and manage the identities, groups and permissions crucial to these VOs, and the largely manual nature of the processes required to create and administer a research project was becoming an impediment to the actual research itself. The IAM 1) provides an automated system that provides centralized management of science research VOs in support of distributed science research; 2) enhances inter-institutional research collaboration allowing researchers to use their campus login to access resources at partner institutions; 3) positions researchers to leverage external resources for greater science research collaboration such as Internet2 and other Research and Education (R&E) Networks and 4) enables wider use of existing directory services by an array of science research tools.