The key lies in the use of an authentication platform that is flexible enough to accept the digital credentials of any participating organisation. An additional advantage of the integrated approach is that it need not err towards the lowest common denominator digital identity solution – i.e. username/password. Therefore, should an organisation within the integrated identity group want to be able to use stronger identity for some, if not all, of its transactions then this is possible without interfering with the requirements of other participants. As such, one organisation may consistently have high transaction values that would justify and require a more robust authentication solution than lower value transactions would. This is based upon a financial risk versus cost of solution basis but does allow for the widespread use of a single smart card-based solution.


As the digital identity market evolves, we will of course see many examples of both issuer-centric federated identity and application-centric integrated identity networks developing. The federated identity model is best suited to small communities with rich, intensive interactions, and with simple risk management requirements. The integrated identity model provides a new perspective on identity management for large application owners, and significantly simplifies the deployment and management of applications which span communities, require a tiered authentication and risk model or raise significant privacy issues.