This is an interesting poll from the perspective of our institution. We are in
the process of implementing SSO for the first time. Currently 99% of our
services authenticate against Active Directory using the same user id and
password, so the move
to a SSO solution is not a radical shift. Originally we began experimenting
with CAS, but then the CSU system began an initiative for implementing
federated login using Shibboleth. At that time we figured it made sense to
stick with one SSO product,
and we were being required to implement Shibboleth anyway.
But in the process of experimenting with both Shib and CAS and integrating
various applications, we have begun to realize that CAS is a much more mature
pure SSO product than Shib. We have now decided to implement both side by side
and use CAS as
the authentication mechanism for Shib. We will use CAS as the primary SSO
product, and then use Shib when it makes sense. I would be interested to hear
the perspective of institutions that use both and prefer Shib.
Here is the breakdown of the pros and cons to each approach as we see them:
Shibboleth Advantages
• Federation + Single Sign On in one product
CAS Advantages
• Much more mature pure SSO functionality than Shibboleth
◦ Proxy authentication support for portal applications *big
deal*
◦ Single Sign Out - Although still safer to train users to exit
browser
◦ Built in support for customization of logout page based on
service
• Much simpler to 'CASify' a web application than to 'Shibbolize'
(less administrative overhead)
◦ CAS uses simple API with libraries for many languages
◦ Shibboleth SP requires daemon installed on each server, xml
configuration, as well as API
• Wider built-in support from 3rd party web applications
• Other institutions in the CSU (Cal Poly) have already successfully
CASified Peoplesoft *big deal*
Disadvantages to using both CAS + Shibboleth
• Increased server load
◦ Two Tomcat applications instead of one
◦ Double the requests for each Shibboleth SSO instance
• Added complexity (one more session to keep track of) for Shibbolized
Apps
• Need to maintain two SSO server applications
• Need to maintain expertise in both CAS and Shibboleth
Advantages to CAS + Shibboleth
• We can take advantage of SSO strengths of CAS
• We can take advantage of federated log in with Shibboleth where
needed
• Less administrative overhead for CASified applications
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