Identity & access management
SURF IAM services
For many years, SURF has provided a reliable and secure infrastructure that enables identity and access management within the education and research sector. We did this through the services SURFconext, SURFsecureID, SRAM and eduID. The demand for greater flexibility – or Lifelong Development (LLO) – means that the ‘fragmented’ offering (four separate services) no longer adequately meets current needs.
Over the years, the four services have continued to grow and evolve. This has led to overlap between their functionalities. There were also limitations in the contracts or the business model. Consequently, the SURFconext, SURFsecureID and SRAM services have been merged into the SURF Access service.
SURF Access: simple access management
SURF Access enables your institution to set up its access management effectively and easily, particularly when it comes to access management and collaboration beyond the boundaries of your own institution. From 2027, SURF Access will provide administrators within institutions with a single system and user environment. Whereas access management was previously available via separate services (SURFconext, SURFsecureID, SRAM), this will now be consolidated into a single access management solution. SURF Access brings together existing functionalities and future new capabilities.
Whether it involves managing and granting access to visiting students, visiting researchers, alliances or other user groups, all of this is possible via SURF Access. SURF helps administrators within institutions to make the right choices to set up their access management via SURF Access effectively.
eduID: taking control of your own identity
Through eduID, learners, researchers, staff, external parties and other users within education and research can take control of their own digital identity. This enables them to digitally prove who they are and, on that basis, what they can and cannot do. This applies within the digital environments and applications offered by various Dutch education and research institutions.
This is particularly important for learners. Through eduID, for example, they can gain access to a digital learning environment to take a course, view their marks and use the applications made available by various institutions. This is comparable to the role DigiD plays in accessing government services.
Normally, such a digital identity is issued by an institution. Learners can now apply for this securely themselves via eduid.nl, giving them their own institution-independent identity. This enables learners to prove their identity and access rights at various affiliated institutions and applications before, during and after their studies. eduID also gives learners greater control: they can largely decide for themselves what happens to their data and with whom they share it.