Distributed authentication mechanisms for handling diverse authentication systems in an enterprise computer system

摘要

Methods and computer systems for providing access to a protected resource are described. In an enterprise computer system (300), an authentication server (302) provides a client (306) requesting access to the protected resource a credential (318). In order to access the protected resource, the requesting client (306) presents a protected resource access request in combination with the credential (318) to a server (304) coupled to the protected resource. The server (304), in turn, requests the authentication server (302) to validate the credential (318). After the authentication server (302) has validated the credential (318), the server (304) grants the requesting client (306) access to the protected resource.