Sun announces Passport competitor

Sun has joined forces with several companies, including Cisco, Sony and Vodafone, to launch Liberty Alliance, a project aimed at creating an alternative to Microsoft’s Passport service.

Liberty Alliance’s stated aim is to ‘deliver and

Sun has joined forces with several companies, including Cisco, Sony and Vodafone, to launch Liberty Alliance, a project aimed at creating an alternative to Microsoft's Passport service.

Liberty Alliance's stated aim is to 'deliver and support an identity solution for the Internet that enables single sign-on for consumers as well as business users in an open, federated way.' To 'enable ubiquitous single sign-on across multiple web sites, and eventually across multiple devices connected to the Internet. The service will provide distributed authentication, and open, platform-neutral network authorization, from any device connected to the Internet, from traditional desktop computers and cellular phones to credit cards, automobiles and point-of-sale terminals'

The two primary advantages Sun will have in this new endeavour are its reputation, and the sheer numbers of well-respected partners who are also involved. Liberty Alliance has 33 partner companies including such names as American Airlines, Bank of America, Cisco Systems, Dun and Bradstreet, eBay, Entrust, GM, Nokia, O'Reilly and Associates, RealNetworks, RSA Security, Sony Corporation, Sprint, United Airlines, Verisign and Vodafone. With such widespread support, and the associated guarantee of Liberty Alliance support for services offered by these partners, it's hard to see how Liberty Alliance can fail.

Microsoft's main advantages lay in its amount of corporate clout, and its existing user base. When Microsoft shouts, companies listen. Couple this with the fact that Microsoft has nearly 165 million current Passport users (thanks mainly to Hotmail) on a service that is already up and running, and it makes quite a game of catch-up for Liberty Alliance.

The biggest disadvantage Microsoft must overcome is the perceived privacy issues connected with giving the software giant access to so many personal details in a central database. Justifiable or not, Microsoft is viewed by many as the 'evil empire' that will stop at nothing (including nefarious adventures with your personal data) to increase its market share and sales. Conversely, Sun is seen almost as the direct opposite, mainly due to its drawn out battle with Microsoft over Java, and its support of the Open Source movement.

The biggest hurdle Liberty Alliance will have to overcome in the coming months is the presence of a functioning service. Currently, Liberty Alliance is an idea, no more. Sun needs some solid code that produces a working, secure service before many people will abandon the idea of a universal Passport all together.

At this stage, opinion is split in the Atomic offices as to who will win in the struggle for a universal authentication and authorisation service. Several people are backing Sun, due solely to the list of large, multi-industry partners involved in the Liberty Alliance. Others back Microsoft, mainly due to Microsoft's control of the most widely used OS and browser, and its ability to create anything from total incompatibility, to seemingly innocuous error messages (a la` DR-DOS) when using Liberty Alliance services. Regardless of who wins, the battle should be epic. So sit back, relax and watch as the sparks begin to fly.