An Interoperability Prototype for Liberty (IPL) was among several announcements issued by Sun Microsystems at the SunNetwork 2002 Conference and Pavilion. The prototype is based upon the Liberty Alliance Version 1.0 specification, and has been designed "for developers (enterprise customers and ISVs) who want to build or test Liberty-enabled applications to manage and maintain their own identity management systems. Based on open standards such as SAML 1.0, XML, and SOAP, both the IPL prototype and the Liberty specification are available immediately for download. The Interoperability Prototype for Liberty is the first open-source implementation of the Liberty Alliance Version 1.0 specification based on Java technology. IPL is designed to help developers learn how the project Liberty Alliance Version 1.0 specification can be implemented. Written for the Java 2 platform, IPL provides the foundation for building liberty into applications and testing interoperability between liberty compliant solutions such as the Sun ONE Identity Server version 6.0. IPL consists of sample Java source code libraries, implementing the Liberty version 1.0 specification, and is not designed for commercial deployment."

From the announcement:

Today's announcement supports Sun's July unveiling of the first shipping, end-to-end network identity solution that addresses customers' needs for heightened security, privacy and federated identity management and that new products, services and support available 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.

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.

"We strongly support Sun's effort to propel the adoption of federated identity since the ability for enterprises to do business rises exponentially as the number of authorized users increases," said Andy Mulholland, chief technology officer, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. "The ability to identify people externally as well internally will break through the barrier to the advancement of any online activity and the wide adoption of Web Services."

"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."