InCommon Collaboration Success Program Alumni Applaud Its Benefits

Get IAM Done. Faster. Better. Together. That’s the promise of the InCommon Collaboration Success Program (CSP). And it’s one we’ve been delivering on since kicking off the program’s first cohort in 2018. 

The expression of interest period for the CSP 2023–2024 cohort is open through July 17, and no one better communicates the program’s value than 30+ CSP alumni.  Here’s what some of our past participants had to say about the benefits of this one-of-a-kind collaborative offering that helps the research and education community get IAM done, faster, better, together.

Faster

Where do you turn for community and collaboration as your institution launches a multiyear identity and access management (IAM) modernization program? For Bruce Vincent, director of identity and middleware services at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the answer was the InCommon Collaboration Success Program (CSP).

“Joining CSP was exactly what was needed for where we were in our strategic effort,” Bruce said. “The CSP program is a very well-constructed catalyst for moving very quickly and getting a lot of staff up to speed in a very structured way.” SLAC was in CSP’s Class of 2021 and returned to participate in the program in 2022 as well.

Better

According to Clemson University’s Kathy Wright, systems programmer/developer, the CSP more than lived up to its ideals, particularly in the area of staff training and development.

“We needed to train another generation of IAM developers in our Shibboleth space. We also were facing a big upgrade from a legacy version of Shibboleth with IDP to the current version provided through the Trusted Access Platform, which is containerized, and we did not have experience in doing that,” Kathy said. “CSP provided us with the best option for going forward.”

“I recommend the program to anybody who is starting an IAM project,” she continued. “You will not regret it. It is more economical than hiring consultants although you can do both. However, participating in CSP will truly train your staff in these principles and in the practice of operation.” Clemson participated in the 2021 – 2022 cohort of CSP. (Watch Kathy’s video about the CSP.)

Together

During IAM Online for April 2023, two soon-to-be alumni from the current CSP cohort,  Erik Coleman, IAM architect at the University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign, andAnne Tacazon, interim business service manager for Identity & Access Management at the University of Washington, shared their experiences with the CSP. (Watch the recording of the webinar.)

“I was thinking, so I get to be in the room with people that use this software [Grouper] differently than we do and with the creators of the software,” Anne recalled when discussing UW’s discussion to join the CSP. “I just thought, ‘sign me up.’ How can I get involved?”

According to Erik, community support was a key factor in the university’s decision to enroll in CSP for the second time in five years. “In 2018, we basically set out to deploy Grouper and Shibboleth using the new Trusted Access Platform Docker images, and we really found a lot of value in the community support with that iteration,” he explained, “so  we actually thought why not give it another go in the 2023 cohort.”

“This time we wanted to dive in and begin to evaluate midPoint,” he continued, “and be able to relate to other institutions that have been through this and could give us some support. That was what led us to join a second time.”

Are you ready to join Bruce, Kathy, Anne, and Erik in getting IAM done better, faster, together?

To get more information about the benefits of this fee-based program, please complete this form by July 17. (This is not a firm commitment; we’ll ask for that later.) We will follow up with you about your plans and fit for the program. Please visit our website for more details, including a timeline, or email training@incommon.org.

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