Colorado School of Mines

Project Executive Overview:

Mines currently has a functioning vendor-based solution for identity management, including a person registry, provisioning of accounts across multiple service platforms, fundamental role-based access control, and password management. The solution successfully manages 90% of all automated provisioning across a variety of disparate systems. Users are able to utilize a self-service portal to claim an account as well manage password changes. 

There are, however, several functional shortcomings in the existing solution. First, all de-provisioning of accounts is done manually. Additionally, Account provisioning is based on high-level Banner institutional roles and does not have the granularity required to manage access to resources at the level required. Such requirements include lab and classroom access for students based on major and/or course enrollment, access to software and services based on affiliation, membership in various groups 

and mail lists based on job title, job function, major or department, and various levels of access to Banner and associated applications based on job title and function. Specifically, Mines would like to move from a role based access control model to attribute based access control. Lastly, all sponsored user accounts such as those for visiting faculty, visiting students, vendors and contract employees are manually processed. 

The currently active IAM project roadmap includes initiatives to address these identified shortcomings, including automated de-provisioning within the system and subsequent implementation of Grouper to address institutional requirements surrounding access 3 

management. However – and perhaps most critical - there is a great deal of concern around the current vendor and the future viability of their solution. As a result, Mines has been exploring options for a replacement IAM solution.

Organization Summary:

Colorado School of Mines is a public research university in Golden, CO, with academic programs and research portfolio devoted to engineering and applied science. It has the highest admissions standards of any public university in Colorado and among the highest of any public university in the U.S. Mines has distinguished itself by developing a curriculum and research program geared towards responsible stewardship of the earth and its resources. 

In addition to strong education and research programs in traditional fields of science and engineering, Mines is one of a very few institutions in the world having broad expertise in resource exploration, extraction, production and utilization. As such, Mines occupies a unique position among the world's institutions of higher education. The world faces a crisis in balancing resource availability with environmental protection and Mines and its programs are central to the solution. 2 

Mines offers all the advantages of a world-class research institution with a size that allows for personal attention. Current enrollment in Fall of 2017 is 6,043 which is comprised of 79% undergraduate and 21% graduate students. Computing, Communications, and Information Technologies (CCIT) offers centralized support for technology strategy and all institution-wide technology initiatives, projects, and services at Mines. This centralized approach works extremely well, particularly given Mines size (student, faculty, and staff population). Among other benefits, it affords an opportunity for standardization around approaches to technology and technology platforms - including identity

Key Area(s) of Interest:

• Grouper Access Management 
• midPoint

Contact Information: