Higher security: Policy-driven methods,
using strong authorization controls over secure access channels,
provide a higher-level security. This higher level also
provides a secure mechanism for ensuring privacy in the exchange of
identity and authorization attributes.
Provide a standard conduit for collaboration:
The Federation acts as a collection point and conduit for those wishing
to provide and gain access to collaborative web based resources. Using
a standard mechanism for connecting to this conduit provides economies
of scale by reducing or removing the need to repeat integration work
for each new collaborative work.
Reduced account overhead: Account
creation and management can be reduced for resource consumers who are
not affiliated with the institution offering those resources. As a federation
member, these resources are made available to other federation members
who are responsible for managing those accounts.
Economies of scale for contractual agreements:
Some or all of the policy and legal requirements for bilateral agreements
between institutions for sharing of resources may be consolidated by
or leveraged from the Federation policies, agreements and requirements
documents. This could minimize the need or scope of multiple relying
party agreements.
More granular control over access to and auditing
of online resource distribution: Institutions currently offering
resources restricted by IP address or other gross controls will be able
use authorization decisions to enforce more granular control for the
distribution of cost based resources. The results of which lead to a
more consistent accounting of which resources are actually being utilized
and by whom.
