“Kuppinger Cole believes that in principle, open-sourced development has large advantages for customers. The hybrid approach of an innovative version with a short release cycle in parallel to a commercial release with a longer release cycle works very well when both are supported equally and enterprises can choose freely. The number of developers and the ability to contribute also gives enterprises peace of mind. Last but not least, several large enterprises have made very positive experience with a bottom-up approach to access management with OpenSSO. We therefore consider OpenSSO Express/Access Manager to be a safe product investment, when the features match the specific business needs.”

–Felix Gaehtgens, Kuppinger Cole
You got to love quotes like the one above from Kuppinger Cole. Check out the full article here.
The word on open source is getting out and the excitement is building day by day. Since the OpenSSO Express announcement my phone has been ringing off the hook with questions and interest. As Fozzy Bear used to say, “Wocka, Wocka Wocka!”

Following our exciting OpenSSO Express announcement last week, there is big news this week regarding Sun’s OpenDS project, an open source, 100% java directory server that is suuuuuper simple to use. Sun announced the availability of Sun OpenDS Standard Edition (SE) 1.0, a fully indemnified and supported version of OpenDS. Check out the announcement here.
This is a big deal for us in the OpenSSO world because we embed the community version of OpenDS 1.0 in our product as an embedded configuration store and user store today. When we release our next commercial version of the product in September we will embed Sun OpenDS Standard Edition (SE) 1.0. This will allow customers to receive full support and indemnfication for OpenDS as both a configuration store and user store when deploying OpenSSO.
WOWZA! Times are a changin’!

As you can see from the list of articles and blogs below, Sun’s OpenSSO Express announcement caught a lot of eyes. We’ve been getting a lot of questions about the announcement and tremendous interest in the solution as an alternative to traditional approaches.
I think Redmonk’s Michael Coté captured some of the key drivers and scenarios that initiatied our interest in creating this model.
“The idea is that companies can quicker access to new features in the OpenSSO build rather than waiting for the longer, full cycle. As a Sun watcher, I like this kind of thing because it’s a simple, straight forward implementation, if you will, of being an open source company. Developers are typically prone to download and start using open source components for projects, esp. small, “just trying this out, ooops, now it’s a big deal for us” types of projects. Providing support for scenarios like that – starting to use OpenSSO instead of Access Manager – is nice for both developers and operations people who have to support the end result.”
A key factor to understand about the OpenSSO community is that it primarily consists of enterprises or large organizations that are implementing enterprise scale solutions. We were getting overwhelmed with requests from members to offer support and indemnification for these deployments. With regards to price they evaluated the solution by weighing the cost of buying an AM license versus the cost of hiring internal resources to manage the deployment on their own.
Take a look at the articles below and learn more about what people are saying.
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OpenSSO Express on IdentityBuzz
RedMonk’s People Over Processors
Michael Cote
July 23, 2008
Sun readies Web stack featuring choice of OSes
InfoWorld
Paul Krill
July 23, 2008
Sun Makes Open Source Announcements: Focus on Web Stack, cloud computing, and security
Dr. Dobb’s Journal
July 23, 2008
Sun Microsystems Intros Sun OpenSSO Express for the OpenSSO Project
TMCnet
Anshu Shrivastava
July 23, 2008
Sun Announces OpenSSO Express
Web Host Industry Review
David Hamilton
July 23, 2008
Sun Open SSO to have just one flavor
ZDNet
Dana Blankenhorn
July 21, 2008
Sun offering support for OpenSSO: Company standing behind new version of open source technologies
Network World
John Fontana
July 24, 2008
Sun turns on the AMP: Plus SSO, web hosting and more open sauce
The Inquirer
Dean Pullen
July 24, 2008
OpenSSO Express and the smoking simian
Pushing String:
Sun OpenSSO Express: Sun Web Stack ready to ship
diTii.com | D’ Technology Weblog
Sun OpenSSO Express: Industry’s First Enterprise Support for Open Source Identity Management
Java Entrepreneur:
OpenSSO Express
The Open Road
Sun OpenSSO Enterprise
Dennis Seah’s Weblog
Sun Microsystems Announces Sun OpenSSO Express
dZone
Free DNS Lookup: Sun offering support for OpenSSO
osdir: Sun readies Web stack featuring choice of OSes
baanmo: Sun OpenSSO Express: Sun Web Stack ready to ship
linker: Sun readies Web stack featuring choice of OSes
Database Management: Sun readies Web stack featuring choice of OSes
UOforums: Sun readies Web stack featuring choice of OSes
Sun OpenSSO Express
Sidharth’s Blog
OpenSSO Express: Start your Federation project today with support from Sun
Virtual Nick
The Aquarium: Sun OpenSSO Express – Support for OpenSSO Stable Milestones!
Identity Management Buzz: Today Sun is Announcing Sun’s OpenSSO Express
Sun Extends Support to Include OpenSSO Releases
On the Record Blog Entry

If you are wondering why I’ve been so quiet for the last few weeks it’s because my team has been heads-down working on the launch of OpenSSO Express, an early access version of the next release of Access Manager that is fully supported and indemnified by Sun. In short, customers that buy Sun Access Manager now also receive access to OpenSSO Express under a single license.
Customer can choose what they want to deploy. If our commercial builds have all the features you need and you want a traditional offering then use Sun Access Manager. If you are focused on innovation or key features that are not yet supported in our commercial release, but are available via OpenSSO then deploy OpenSSO Express. Regardless of what you choose you get a fully tested offering that includes Sun support and indemnification.
To help explain the benefits of this model I sat down with Redmonk’s Michael Coté to discuss. Check out the podcast and let me know what you think!

Also, for more information on this announcement check out . . .
OpenSSO Express Feature Article
OpenSSO Project
OpenSSO Wiki
Sun Access Manager Product Page