Microsoft is to extend the use of its Passport authentication
system into the corporate market, inviting any other businesses to
use Passport as a means of username/password security on their
sites. The company hopes that Passport will become a universal
log-in system.
Passport is currently most used by individuals logging into
their Hotmail accounts and presently claims to accommodate 165
million accounts. It will now be marketed to e-commerce companies
as a means of conducting business transactions between web sites.
Microsoft hopes that businesses will eventually adopt Passport as
their log-in system for business to consumer and business to
business transactions. Microsoft says it already has 75 corporate
partners using Passport in this manner.
This represents another move in Microsoft’s plans for web
services. The company also announced this week that it is renaming
the Hailstorm suite of .NET services as .Net My Services.
The new Windows XP operating system will drive more users to
Passport due to a controversial feature of its design which
attempts to tie users to the on-line service. Dell, Compaq and
Gateway are already including versions of Windows XP on new PCs and
reports suggest that some businesses and consumers will obtain
Windows XP as early as 24th September, one month ahead of its
official launch date.
