Microsoft next month for the first time will participate in SAML 2.0 interoperability testing using its Geneva platform to test against other vendors' implementations of the open standard identity protocol. Microsoft will enter the testing, which has been sponsored by the Liberty Alliance since 2003, with the Beta 2 version of Geneva released last month. At that time, Microsoft said it would add certification for the Liberty Alliance implementation of SAML 2.0 when the final code of Geneva is released at the end of 2009. Microsoft has had support for the SAML token format as part of its Identity MetaSystem, which is the foundation of the Geneva project, but not SAML's transport protocol.

Read the complete article by John Fontana in Network World.