Core Middleware Components

There are several elements of middleware that seem at the core, a set of services that virtually all other middleware components depend on. These include:

• Identification - a set of computer-readable codes that uniquely specify a subject.
• Authentication - the process of a subject electronically establishing that it is, in fact, the object associated with a particular identity.
• Directory Services - central repositories that hold information and data associated with identities. These repositories are accessed by people and by applications to get information, customize generic environments to individual preferences, route mail and documents, etc.
• Authorization Services - those permissions and workflow engines that drive transaction handling, administrative applications, and automation of business processes

In addition, there is core set of technologies emerging in the security arena called digital certificates and public-key infrastructures (PKI). This area is integrally related to the above issues in several key aspects.