NSW Government builds identity management hub

The NSW Government is rolling out an identity management solution that aims to provide all NSW public servants single sign-on to apps consumed from within its two new data centres.

The 'identity hub' will manage all NSW Government user identifications, whether used to access government systems or cloud supplier services housed within the NSW Government's Silverwater and Unanderra data centres. 

The Oracle Identity Management software stack is hosted on an infrastructure-as-a-service platform, provided by NTT Communications on Oracle hardware.

It leverages both the 'Government Employee Number' standard the NSW Government rolled out over the past 18 months, and industry-standard connectors based on Security Assertion Markup Language 2.0 (SAML 2.0) to integrate with the various authentication systems in place across the state government. 

Oracle partner Dataweave is delivering the solution alongside a consortium of IT suppliers appointed to the project, which also includes Qubit Consulting.

Dataweave managing director Norman Weaver said the project would reduce costs and improve password security for the government by streamlining the administration of accounts and logins.

He said the platform was designed to extend out into the public cloud to allow business and citizens to also be incorporated into the system.

Speaking at last week's launch of Stage 2 of GovDC, Pedro Harris, ‎executive director of ICT strategic delivery at NSW Finance said the new solution would cost about 22c per user, where the agency had previously been looking at around $5 per user under the original business case.

The dramatic fall in price came as the result of a utility pricing arrangement Dataweave negotiated with Oracle.

"We are charging per identity per month as a pure subscription. Oracle sells it to us on a software-as-a-service basis," Dataweave managing director Norman Weaver said.

"This is a true SaaS deal in that we don't own the licence and the government doesn't own the license. We have a contract with Oracle for a specific term to purchase the service from Oracle, which we on-sell to the government as part of a solution."