News

ForgeRock Updates Java-Based OpenIDM

• By John K. Waters
• January 20, 2012

ForgeRock, the company formed last year by former Sun Microsystems executives to steward the open-source access management and federation server platform project known as OpenSSO, has released version 2.0 of its OpenIDM identity management offering.

OpenIDM is designed to manage an organization's user ID life-cycle in real time. It's essentially a framework for administering access privileges, provisioning and the syncing of multiple identity-stores for applications. It's based on open standards, it's built around a modular OSGi-based architecture with a RESTful API, and it works both locally and in the cloud. It also supports the Open Identity Connectors Framework and Toolkit (OpenICF) project, which helps "drive the development" of the connectors needed to provide "a generic layer between apps and target resources."

OpenIDM 2.0 supports user customization via hooks allowing custom Java methods, JavaScripts, or Workflow to be invoked. The company bills the framework as "developer-friendly, lightweight, modular and easy to install."

OpenIDM is a component of the company's I3 ("eye-cubed") Open Identity Platform. Launched last May, the ID management suite is built from OpenAM, which is based on OpenSSO, and includes OpenIDM, OpenESB, and OpenPortal (which is based on LifeRay).

OpenSSO was an open-source ID services project originally sponsored by Sun and based on the Sun Java System Access Manager. OpenSSO Express was a version that provided paid support. In 2010, Oracle, which acquired Sun and, with it, the OpenSSO stewardship, announced that OpenSSO was "not strategic," and later removed OpenSSO Express as a download. ForgeRock now supports the OpenSSO project as "OpenAM," its core access management framework.

ForgeRock was founded last February by Lasse Andresen, former CTO of Sun's Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, Herman Svoren, former Sun Sales exec (EMEA). The goal of the company, which is headquartered in the U.K. and Norway, with subsidiaries in the U.S., is to be "a pure-play, open-source ISV."

ForgeRock provides support for OpenIDM via what the company calls a "Fair Share Pricing" model. Under the subscription-based service plan, all of the components in the company's I3 platform are free to download, evaluate, and use. A Proof of Concept subscription provides support services, and a Build license supports customers who want to build their own solutions based on the product. More information here.