IBM Cognos supports the implementation of Java based custom authentication providers. Custom authentication providers enable Cognos to utilize at a customer specific source for authentication and authorization. For example, security credentials may be stored in a proprietary database or in some security system, not supported by IBM Cognos out-of-the-box.
Motio has implemented custom authentication providers for a large number of IBM Cognos customers around the world. Having solved this problem numerous times in a wide variety of environments, Motio created a well designed framework which allows organizations to implement a fully supported custom authentication provider quickly and efficiently.
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Top 5 Reasons to Buy a Packaged CAP vs Build Your Own:
1. You are not alone.
2. Certain parts of a CAP are not always ‘custom’.
3. Leverage Motio's expertise in IBM Cognos and Java
4. Time to market
5. Allows internal development to focus on value-added products and not ‘behind-the-scenes plumbing’.
Closing Thought for Developers:
There are a number of subtleties and potential pitfalls when developing a custom authentication provider. Some of these can leave holes in your security system, and others can cause IBM Cognos to function incorrectly or inefficiently. Most of these issues will only be discovered "the hard way". The MotioCAP framework embeds solutions to these issues so that they are taken care of automatically, and exposes convenient flexpoints for you to hook it in to your particular environment. Using the MotioCAP framework WILL dramatically reduce the time required to implement a full custom security provider (often by as much as 90%), and will ensure a robust and fully functional implementation.
