(September 23, 2002) - Sun Microsystems, Inc., has announced the availability of the Sun Interoperability Prototype based on the Liberty Alliance Specification (IPL). This prototype offering is designed for developers - both enterprise customers and ISVs - that want to build or test Liberty-enabled applications to manage and maintain their own identity management systems. Written for the Java 2 platform, Sun IPL is the first open community, Java technology-based implementation of the Liberty Alliance Version 1.0 specification. This prototype and the Liberty specification are based on open standards such as SAML 1.0, XML, and SOAP. Sun IPL is available immediately for download at: developer.java.sun.com/developer/codesamples/liberty.html . This end-to-end network identity solution addresses customers' needs for heightened security, privacy, and federated identity management. It also reflects Sun?s resolve that new products, services, and support are fully compliant with the Liberty Alliance version 1.0 specification. The availability of Sun IPL will help customers migrate to Liberty-compliant Sun ONE products, such as the Sun ONE Identity Server 6.0. IPL consists of sample Java source code libraries, implementing the Liberty version 1.0 specification, and is not designed for commercial deployment. IPL is licensed as open source under the Sun Microsystems Open Source License. Interoperability and open, non-proprietary standards enable businesses and consumers to better manage their data and offer network identity-enabled services on their own business terms. Because a federated model removes the constraints of a single, centralized architecture, cross-platform information can be stored, managed, and distributed easily. "By being the first to deliver a Liberty-compliant prototype for developers we are demonstrating our industry leadership in network identity management," said Steve Pelletier, vice president of network identity, communications, and portal products for Sun Microsystems, Inc. "Federated identity and Web services will be able to be fully realized due in part to our commitment to developers, open standards and open source." The project Liberty version 1.0 specification enables federated network identity through providing a standard mechanism and set of protocols, based on open standards. This is accomplished through an opt-in account linking mechanism that enables the sharing of identity and authentication information between identity systems providing for simplified sign-on.