Last week BEA, Entrust, Sun and Waveset announced that they managed to implement a public prototype of SPML which is an XML-based open standard for user account provisioning. There are two reasons why I think SPML is quite important in short term.

1. It enables easier enterprise user and security administration.

Currently, there are no standards that would enable multi platform, multi-application user and security administration (unless you work in Redmond and then of course the tool is called Active Directory). Enterprise security administration tools from the likes of Tivoli, Business Layers or BMC can help here. Unfortuntely they don't come cheap (even within the category of 'enterprise software'). Open standards will eventually mean lower costs, which in turn will mean more companies will do enterprise security administration and have more secure systems, which is a good thing.

2. It will enable new types of apps

As soon as one starts thinking about more advanced modes of application integration, namely integrating transactions and processes (SOA, BPM and other trendy three letter acronyms), one needs to be able to create/delete user identity and authorisation details in multiple systems. This is especially an issue in B2B integration, where access to other company's security systems as well as your ability to install your managemenet agents is problematic. NWFusion's Dave Kearns explains how SPML could be used in practice:

"For example, a supply partner (Company A) goes to its partner's  (Company B) supply chain portal and requests access to its inventory data, which is stored in a back-office system. In  response, Company B initiates a request using SPML to communicate with SPML-enabled identity management software. After automatically acquiring the appropriate permissions, Company B grants the appropriate access levels to Company A to gain access to the data it needs. This process takes place without the need for the portal environment to have an intimate understanding of the back-office environment. In other words, it's all automatic."

Having open standards for creation and deletion of user accounts in a way described in the article will make B2B integration easier and hopefully would make people use individual user accounts instead of shared ones.

In short, although it gets much less press, SPML is in my view as important as specs from Liberty Alliance.

8:02:45 PM