Identity & Access Management

WACREN allows NRENs to provide secure access for their communities across network boundaries in the region and globally by delivering interoperable services that verify user identity and grants access to resources which they are authorised to use.

These trusted access management environments provide connectivity and content access, whether at home or abroad by using the log-in credentials of the users home institution.

eduroam

Seamless Wi-Fi access for research and education at home and abroad

eduroam (education roaming) is a worldwide service that provides secure access on campus for the research and education community. It allows researchers, students and staff from participating institutions to visit and access networks and the Internet at other participating institutions without needing to request passwords or reconfigure their laptops or other mobile devices.

WACREN operates a regional proxy for the African eduroam confederation, provides hosting for country-level components of the service, and an application for NRENs to operate the service and facilitate the management and monitoring of participating institutions. With benefits for users and their campus IT departments, eduroam saves time and facilitates active and enduring collaboration between countries and institutions.

eduID - education Identity, single sign-on and secure access to remote resources across organisational domains

eduID enables users from participating institutions to log into web-based services using their home institution's credentials. This way, it identifies them as bonafide members of the education community. It allows them access vital resources such as research databases, tools and services at institutions and organisations in participating countries, some of which are restricted to education users, without needing to re-register or apply for additional permissions.

WACREN provides eduid.africa - an IdP as a Service (IdPaaS) solution for hosted Identity Providers (IdPs). The IdPaaS is offered in conjunction with a Federation as a Service (FaaS) platform for NRENs to manage their Identity Federations. These hosted tools enable NRENs and their communities to provision eduID for their users in a way that is easy to deploy, manage and use.

By removing geographical and technical barriers to sharing information, the eduID service allows NRENs to provide single sign-on to resources, making it simple to access remote resources as if they were in a user’s home institution.