Patent ID: 7647319

Claim:
An information processing apparatus for providing a service requested by a user from a plurality of services, comprising: a plurality of authentication processing units configured to execute authentication processing of a user who requests to provide a service via a network; a recording unit configured to record association information which describes association between information pertaining to services, and information pertaining to the authentication processing units which execute authentication processing upon providing the service, wherein the association information indicates that authentication by two or more authentication processing units of the plurality of authentication processing units is needed upon providing one service of the plurality of the services; a specifying unit configured to specify a service from the plurality of the services, based on a request from the user; a determination unit configured to determine at least one authentication processing unit from the plurality of authentication processing units in accordance with the association information recorded by the recording unit, the determined authentication processing unit being associated with the service specified by the specifying unit; a providing unit configured to provide the service requested by the user when the user has been authenticated using the authentication processing unit determined by the determination unit; a receiving unit configured to receive a request of addition of a new service; and a discrimination unit configured to discriminate whether information pertaining to the new service is appended with the request, wherein the information describes association between information pertaining to the new service, and information pertaining to the authentication processing unit which executes authentication processing upon providing the new service, wherein when the determination unit determines the two or more authentication processing units upon providing the service specified by the specifying unit and the user has been authenticated using the two or more authentication processing units determined by the determination unit, the providing unit which provides the service requested by the user provides the service, and wherein, when the discrimination unit discriminates that the information is appended with the request, the recording unit adds the information pertaining to the new service to the association information recorded by the recording unit.