Identity Services in the Cloud

This article discusses Microsoft's plans for its identity platform (Geneva) and some of the plans they have for cloud-based identity services.

The goal is to create a standards-based way to share “claims” and to connect with cloud-based services from Microsoft or other providers. Claims are a set of statements that identify a user and provide specific information such as title or purchasing authority.

Geneva will let companies with Active Directory extend it to create single sign-on between local network resources and cloud services.