Microsoft, Sun tiff puts users in bind

摘要

Nearly a year after promising to make their directory and single sign-on technologies work together, Microsoft and Sun have delivered little — a stalemate that exposes an industry rift over identity standards that is costing users money. While the pair has agreed to some basic platform support, the work to integrate protocols for sharing identities among companies, so-called identity sharing, has stalled, according to sources. The fallout, users say, is complicating identity federation and adding costs as users hoping to connect with one another bear the brunt of integrating competing standards. A clash of wills between Microsoft and Sun over identity standards has continued despite last spring's very public reconciliation between the vendors, which involved a $1.6 billion settlement related to patent and antitrust issues.