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Iasa UK North 1
Great Evening on Thursday at Iasa UK North 1 where Astra Zeneca played host to a great series of lightening talks! So good in fact that I have to push mine off the agenda!
Well, I still got chance to introduce the speakers and to give a quick overview of Iasa UK activities which you can find here.
Next up was Bola Rotibi from Creative Intellect who talked about what the enterprise needs architects to consider.
Next on was John Whiteway who went solo with nothing more than a piece of paper, his wit and intellect – great talk with the catchy title “Enterprise Social Networking underpins Predictive Science Capability”! Honestly inspiring stuff!
Following this was hard, but Simon Thurman of Emerging Technology at Microsoft UK is a dab hand, giving us a brief history of Azure on one slide …
After more pizza and beer it was time to realise that … Architecture is Boring, or so someone said to Neil Wetherall of Astra Zeneca! He gave some compelling reasons why people say this and more importantly, what architects should do to change this view …
Last but least it was the turn of Saffron Prior to share more secrets of agile and how it’s changing the way that IT generates value.
SO there we go … what a first night for Iasa UK North … with plenty more in store like this to follow!
Many thanks to all and especially Astra Zeneca for making this such a success!
Authentication as a Service
In partnership with Swivel Secure, the owners of PINsafe, a multifactor authentication solution inTHiNK has successfully delivered a solution to hosting PINsafe in the cloud opening the way to delivering bank grade authentication as a service at a price affordable to all.
inTHiNK has developed a fully standards based Security Token Service that sits in front of PINsafe allowing the service to engage in the exchange of SAML-based claims leveraging the core value of PINsafe’s guaranteed one-time code algorithm.
As shown in the diagram here, a trust relationship is created between a relying application, here it is an Azure hosted .NET web application, but it could exist anywhere, and the PINsafe Federation Service (the Security Token Service). On entering the application, the client is redirected to PINsafeFS where they are challenged to submit a valid username and pin through this services relationship with PINsafe itself.The client submits a user name and one time pin code and on successful validation are redirected back to the relying application with a valid SAML ticket that can be used by the relying application.
To try it out, just visit http://pinsafe.cloudapp.net and see for yourself.
Once you hit this site you will be redirected to PINsafeFS and asked for a username and pin.
- Type in the user name test and tab to the password.
- A unique TURing string will now appear.
- Type in the characters that appear at position 1,2,3 and 4 of this string into the password field.
- Submit and you will be validated by PINsafe
- Once validated, a set of claims about the user will be wrapped in a SAML token and passed back to the relying application.
- Back on the relying application, this SAML token is unpacked and the claims are accessed which include the user name.
Simple!
PINsafeFS is now in beta and available to clients to work with. The next phase will see the delivery of a full featured self-service portal to allow relying applications to manage their identities and the claims they wish to store and use for their users.
PINsafeFS is full standards based and non-invasive using WS-* protocols and SAML tokens.
Now
Welcome Gar Mac Criosta to the inTHiNKers!
It’s a delight to have Gar Mac Criosta join the band of inTHiNKers bringing a great set of experiences on IT Architecture.
Gar has worked in Ireland, UK and Australia for policing, financial services, insurance, public sector bodies and systems integrators including An Garda Síochána, Cap Gemini, An Post, Anglo Irish Bank, Compaq, GE and others.
Gar became one of the first IASA Certified IT Architects (CITA-P) certifying in May 2010. In addition, Gar is current president of IASA Ireland the professional association for IT Architects. Gar is a member of the IASA Europe leadership team and a member of the IASA Board of Education Certification Committee which is currently working to deliver IASA Certification programs globally.
Gar is actively involved in the technology community and has a real ‘grá’ for technology. Gar is currently pondering touch based & device based applications will change our work world.
For more on Gar and the rest of the inTHiNKers click here!
Welcome to Jon Collins as a new inTHiNKer!
It’s with great delight to announce that Jon Collins has agreed to become the latest inTHiNKer to join the gang!
Jon Collins
Jon is a seasoned consultant, writer, speaker and commentator, having worked in and around information technology for 23 years. He started his career as a programmer, moving into systems administration and IT management before working as a consultant in software design and a network management for clients in many different sectors. For the past 11 years Jon has been working as an IT industry analyst for firms including Bloor Research, IDC and Freeform Dynamics, working in areas such as IT security, information management and cloud computing. Jon was named “European Analyst of the Year” in 2009 by the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations. Today, Jon continues to investigate the social and business impacts of digital technologies as part of his more general research into where IT is heading..
For more on Jon and the rest of the inTHiNKers then look here.
Arvindra Sehmi becomes the latest inTHiNKer!
It is a genuine honour to be able to announce that Arvindra Sehmi is the latest to join a great line up of inTHiNKers! Arvindra is actively engaged with a number of inTHiNKers in developing a Capability Value Mapping practice and methodology leveraging his experiences in business intelligence with Onalytica and with the Business Model Canvas and Service Oriented Modelling while at Microsoft.
For more on Vin and the rest of the inTHiNKers click here!
Welcome new inTHiNKERS
It’s with great delight to announce the arrival of two new inTHiNKers to the inTHiNK Associate network.
Bola Rotibi brings over 18 years IT experience and is a world renowned and respected Industry Analyst in ALM space.
Bola joins the inTHiNK network to help define and deliver first class advisory services right across the Application Lifecycle which we are seeking to launch early in 2011.
Richard Godfrey brings over 20 years experience is software development, having built some of the most powerful .NET and Windows Azure based solutions in recent times. He is a well known and respected Software Architect heralding from many years at Microsoft and Deloitte.
Richard joins the inTHiNK network to bolster our ability to deliver architectural services and solutions designs as well as taking these forward into implementation and delivery.
For more on Bola, Richard and the rest of the inTHiNKers click here.
Matt Deacon's All New Digestive Blog 