Sun OpenSSO Express

Sun Announces Support for OpenSSO Express

Sun now provides comprehensive support for OpenSSO, the worlds largest open source identity project that provides fully featured single sign-on, federation management and web services security capabilities in a single Java distribution. Customers, who need access to a simple, open web access management and federation solution with extranet scale should buy Sun's "OpenSSO Enterprise" and they will also receive full support for OpenSSO at no additional cost.

Customers who purchase Sun OpenSSO Enterprise (formerly Access Manager), Sun's commercial version of OpenSSO, will now be entitled to the commercial product and "OpenSSO Express" builds. OpenSSO Commercial builds are released every 12 - 15 months and receive extensive automated testing and manual testing by Sun QA Engineering. OpenSSO Express Builds are released every 3 months and receive extensive automated testing and moderate manual testing by Sun QA Engineering. This move is in response to demand from both Sun customers and OpenSSO community members who have requested support for OpenSSO rather than waiting for the next commercial product release.

Value Proposition
Sun and Open Source:
Sun Microsystems is the largest contributor of open source code in the world. With open source projects such as MySQL, OpenSolaris, Netbeans, Java, Glassfish. OpenESB, OpenSSO and OpenDS, the Sun open source community is growing at a massive pace. Community members are developing open source offerings that leverage the latest Sun open source features and as their business or application infrastructure matures they need longer term support contracts. As a result, the open source community is demanding that Sun provide supported open source solutions to minimize change and allow developers to focus on the next big project.

Open Source support and Indemnification:
Customers that want the latest and greatest OpenSSO features to address their web access management or federation management challenges no longer need to fear corporate attorney's or CIOs who won't let them start unless they have a support contract or indemnification. Sun will now support and indemnify OpenSSO.

Lowest Total Cost of Ownership and Fastest Time to Market:
Sun OpenSSO Enterprise is the most innovative, supported open source web access management and federation solution available. It is a community developed solution that is perfect for large enterprise, SMBs and public sector organizations. OpenSSO is built on the solid foundation of Sun's access management offering, which is known for its high-scale, high-performance installations. It is simple to integrates with your existing identity infrastructure and provides the lowest total cost of ownership of any WAM or federation solution in the market. Finally, OpenSSO is backed by Sun's world class support and provides customers with the most choice and quickest time-to-market with new features and capabilities.

Key Benefits
Access to Latest Features: Customers who purchase Sun OpenSSO Enterprise/Access Manager, will now be able to access the latest features, standards, and innovations through the OpenSSO community.

24x7 Open Source Support: Get support directly from the source - from the engineers who develop OpenSSO.

Flexibility & Choice: With access to the OpenSSO source code, customers have the ultimate flexibility to tailor OpenSSO to their specific needs.

Simple Model: Existing Sun customers do not have to buy anything new. Their existing contracts will be expanded to include support for OpenSSO. New customers do not have to weigh the difference between buying open source versus commercial. Customers simply purchase an OpenSSO Enterprise license and they are entitled to OpenSSO Enterprise commercial builds and OpenSSO Express Builds.

Priority Access to Sun Engineering: The OpenSSO community provides close interaction with the Sun engineering team developing the code-base. Paying customers are provided priority access when submitting RFEs, bug fixes and direct feedback on the OpenSSO code-base.

Sun OpenSSO Support FAQ
Q: What is OpenSSO?
A: OpenSSO (http://opensso.org/) is a Sun Microsystems-sponsored open source project providing core identity functionality such as single sign-on (SSO), federation and identity web services. The project is based on the code base of Sun Java System Access Manager and will form the basis for the next commercial product release.

Q: What is Sun OpenSSO Enterprise?
A: Sun OpenSSO Enterprise, Sun's commercial version of the OpenSSO project (hyperlink to www.opensso.org), is the first identity and access management solution to extend security for Web and Java applications to federated environments and Web services security - with a single product.

Q: Is OpenSSO codebase different from that of "Sun OpenSSO Enterprise"?
A: The code base is exactly the same. After the release of Access Manager 7.x, Sun launched OpenSSO by donating the code to the OpenSSO open source project. Sun has from that time developed in the open with nightly builds and stable builds for customers to use the latest features. The Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 is a commercial release of the OpenSSO project.

Q: How Does OpenSSO Support Work?
To begin using Sun OpenSSO Enterprise or OpenSSO, with support, a customer must do the following.

1.Purchase a Sun OpenSSO Enterprise perpetual license, Sun Identity Management Suite subscription or Java Enterprise System subscription
2.Download Sun OpenSSO Enterprise or Download an OpenSSO Express build (from http://www.opensso.org)

Nothing else is required. Customers do NOT need to purchase additional licenses or support contracts to obtain OpenSSO product support and legal indemnification.

Q: Do I have to upgrade to the latest version of the OpenSSO Express build when it is released?
A: You do not have to upgrade to the latest build but if you find a problem this is the first thing the support team will ask you to do. You can stay on a build of the code as long as you would like and upgrade to a future OpenSSO Express build or commercial release at any time, as long as your support contract is valid.

Q: What is an OpenSSO "Community Build"?
Community builds (Also referred to as Daily/Nightly Builds) are the frequent developer builds available on OpenSSO. These builds have the most up-to-date code, but haven't undergone complete testing by Sun Quality Assurance Engineering team.

Note - Support for OpenSSO Community Builds is only available from the community via IRC, email or documentation.

Q: What is Sun OpenSSO Express?
An OpenSSO Express build has undergone extensive manual and automated testing by Sun Quality Assurance Engineering Team. Customers who purchase Sun OpenSSO Enterprise, Identity Management Suite or Java Enterprise System can receive support on OpenSSO Express.

The two latest OpenSSO "Stable builds" are termed as OpenSSO Express. Support for Sun customers is available on OpenSSO Express. New OpenSSO Express builds are made available approximately every 3 months (as opposed to new commercial releases, which are made available in 12/15 months time).

Support for Sun customers is available on OpenSSO Express. Customers are recommended to use OpenSSO Express Builds for deployment, for latest features. Customers should have an OpenSSO Express Build deployed, in order to be able to report an issue via Sun Customer Support channels.

Q: What is the difference between "Sun OpenSSO Enterprise" and "Sun OpenSSO Express"?

"OpenSSO Enterprise" corresponds to a commercial build, that is released every 12 - 15 months and has undergone extensive automated testing and manual testing by Sun QA Engineering. "OpenSSO Express" builds are released every 3 months and receive extensive automated testing and moderate manual testing by Sun QA Engineering.

- "OpenSSO Express" builds are stable, but "OpenSSO Enterprise" benefits from more rigorous testing. For "OpenSSO Enterprise", more deployment scenarios are tested and additional performance tests are conducted.
- Customers can avail support from Sun for both "Sun OpenSSO Express" and "Sun OpenSSO Enterprise",  but patches/upgrades are provided for "Sun OpenSSO Enterprise" only. With "OpenSSO Express",  the fixes are made available in one of future express builds - which may include new features built since the last express release.
- Upgrade path for "OpenSSO Enterprise" is available, where as no upgrade path is provided between one "OpenSSO Express" build and another. Similarly, there is no upgrade path provided between "OpenSSO Express" and "OpenSSO Enterprise".
- Both "OpenSSO Express" and "OpenSSO Enterprise" guarantee backward compatibility with a prior commercial release - but backward compatibility is not guaranteed for new features added in Express releases. These new features are appropriately detailed in release notes.

Q: Which build should a Sun Customer be downloading and using, for latest features in OpenSSO that are not part of the commercial (Sun OpenSSO Enterprise) release?
A: Customer should be using one of the latest "OpenSSO Express" builds available on OpenSSO (http://www.opensso.org).

Q: Where can I download an "OpenSSO Express" Build?
A: OpenSSO Express builds are available for download under "OpenSSO Express" builds on http://www.opensso.org.

Q: How do I receive support on an "OpenSSO Express" Build?
A: Please ensure that a build you are using is listed under "OpenSSO Express" on opensso.org, at the time of reporting an issue. If yes, you'll be able to use regular Sun Customer Support channels for support queries. If you're using an older build, you'll first need to move to a current supported OpenSSO Express build on opensso.org, for availing support.

Existing set of issues can be found via OpenSSO Issue Tracker. Anyone can search the Issue Database.

Q: What type of QA testing is done on OpenSSO Express builds?
Extensive automated and manual tests, and interoperability tests with supported third party products are conducted by the Sun Quality Assurance Engineering team on OpenSSO Express builds.

Q: Do you provide bug fixes and patches for OpenSSO Express builds?
A: Bug fixes are made available as part of subsequent periodic builds on OpenSSO. These bug fixes are then made available as part of one of the subsequent "OpenSSO Express" releases, and as part of the commercial product(OpenSSO Enterprise) patch.

Q: How often are new OpenSSO Express builds made available?
A: Approximately every 3 months.