Patent ID: 7603469

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of provisioning an aggregated service in a computing network, comprising steps of: obtaining credentials of a user who requests to access an aggregated service; locating, in a network-accessible registry, a service description document specifying a provisioning interface for the aggregated service, the aggregated service comprising an aggregation of a plurality of sub-services and the provisioning interface specifying how to invoke identity functions of the aggregated service; analyzing the obtained credentials by invoking one or more of the identity functions, according to the specification thereof in the provisioning interface, to determine whether the user is authenticated for, and/or is authorized for, accessing the aggregated service; allowing the user to access the aggregated service only if the analyzing step has a successful result; and programmatically relaying identity information obtained by invoking one or more of the identity functions among at least two of the sub-services of the aggregated service.