The Seattle Times: Microsoft: Microsoft shifts tactics for security on Internet

The Seattle Times: Microsoft: Microsoft shifts tactics for security on Internet: "One of the products coming this year shows just how far Microsoft has moved from its original Passport vision. Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), a product to help companies share their collections of digital identities across the Internet, is included in an updated version of Windows Server 2003 appearing in the second half of this year.
An early challenge to Passport came from a coalition of competitors and corporations that advocated for a network of 'federated' identity-management systems that worked together, on different software platforms, rather than a large system managed by a single company such as Microsoft.
Microsoft has since embraced the federated approach and is working with IBM on one of two leading standards. It's also working with Sun Microsystems, one of Passport's biggest critics, to make their platforms work better together.
'I think the monolithic, centralized approach that Passport epitomized has given way to a more loosely coupled, federated approach,' said Gerry Gebel, an analyst with the Burton Group in Salt Lake City. "