Skip to main content

Information Technology
  2. Services
  3. identity
  4. Identity Services - Vision Statement

Identity Services - Vision Statement

Identity Management is defined as the complete management of digital identity. This management includes identifying the person associated with the digital identity, gathering information about the person from various sources, authenticating these digital identities through the use of security credentials, and the ability to associate rights and restrictions to that digital identity. The following statements make up the vision of Identity Management for Vanderbilt University:

  • Vanderbilt will have a single service responsible for creating a composite view of persons and which will serve as the single authoritative source for person identity information.
  • Vanderbilt will have a central service which will be responsible for provisioning and managing accounts, both personal and privileged, for persons at Vanderbilt and which will provide centralized authentication services.
  • An authentication infrastructure is only as strong as its weakest link. The authentication service will be a highly available, robust solution and will meet the needs of the community. Therefore, systems and applications using the authentication service will not cache security credentials. Any local authentication sources that use the centrally managed identity must be managed as part of the core authentication service.
  • The information in these person and account services is very valuable to the Vanderbilt community. This information will be made available to other systems and applications in well-defined and secure ways.
  • Up to date communication of person and account information is critical to creating a successful identity ecosystem. A fabric of services will be developed which will allow systems and applications to be made aware, in well-defined and secure ways, of changes to person and account information.
  • Different systems and applications have differing identity proofing requirements. Vanderbilt’s identity management solution will support multiple identity proofing tiers and will make identity proofing information available for use in authorization decisions.
  • Once in place, Vanderbilt’s identity management solution will affect virtually every system, application and process in the Vanderbilt community. A robust governance structure will be established which will define and enforce identity management policies and which will be charged with managing the evolution of Vanderbilt’s identity management solution.