Thought you would be interested in the following link. Comments and discussion are welcome. Quote: "Standards like SAML and WS-Federation were purpose-built to provide robust security in the cloud. They keep authentication strong and securely within the enterprise firewall. They eliminate the need to maintain sensitive access control information external to the organization. They enable successful on- and off-boarding of all employees on a common directory server. They make it easier to pass security audits by giving full visibility into user access. They afford the flexibility needed to accommodate special or unusual needs. And they scale without adding significant cost or increased complexity." Link: http://www.hpcinthecloud.com/features/Cloud-Security-The-Identity-Factor--10... Alan