Welcome to 2026 from the Grouper Team. Currently the team is celebrating the release of Grouper version 6, a new release that includes User Lifecycle Events features and much more. Check out our Grouper roadmap and the Grouper release page.
As we look forward to all that 2026 has in store for Grouper, we also reflect on what we accomplished last year.
Taking in TechEX25
Thanks to all of you who participated in the Internet2 Technology Exchange (TechEX25) in Denver, December 8-12, 2025.
TechEx 2025 was an exciting conference, and there were plenty of Grouper highlights, including :
- A “Fish and Chips” Tutorial on Grouper, where we took a deep dive into Grouper and AI. (This year we will offer an advanced self-paced training on this topic. More information will be available soon.)
- A session from University of Virginia on Grouper Attestation in Action, UVA’s Transition from MyGroups to Grouper
- A session from University of Michigan on Modernizing IAM with Grouper and OKTA. (See the video here.)
- A successful Grouper BOF
- Advance CAMP sessions
Along with our important identity and access management work, we try to have fun and be a supportive, caring community. It was great to see this spirit in action at TechEX25.
For those who like to get a jump on planning, the 2026 Internet2 Technology Exchange is slated for October 26-30 in Minneapolis. The call for proposals is open until March 27.
Looking at What We Accomplished Together in 2025
Last year was a busy year (represented by 430 Jira tickets!), and here’s some of what we worked on in 2025. In an attempt to not make this blog ho hum, read the following list like it is a poem.
- Upgrades. DDL changes are upgrade tasks, and upgrading is easier. Upgrade tasks are idempotent, not sequential either.
- An efficient process to pre-populate membership cache state. ABAC—real-time data fields, you no longer have to wait. ABAC performance improvements making it lean; Show data fields and rows on the subject screen.
- A flattened version of point-in-time membership history, which is used for various reasons—ABAC, grace, lifecycle mystery. Data field and row history—records the entire past; Full sync and incremental daemons for the history cache.
- Data field subject source. It’s the future; it is printed. Data privacy is built-in, and more likely to be implemented. The UI wizard has the magic without the funny cap; it’s faster than before with JDBC or LDAP.
- Subject source comparison tool for migration. User lifecycle events—as users change their situation. Configure based on data field or membership changes. Policies supersede membership eligibility—priorities rearrange.
- Performance improvement over paged, sorted member lists, showing group info that might otherwise be missed. UI performance improvements save people time; loader config export/import—keeps dev and prod in line.
- The problem of UI hyperlinks in new tabs has been solved. PIT history chart—see how the group memberships evolved. Banners—automatically show in non-production. Announce releases, communicate—users see the instructions.
- AI agents. Let’s make some more please.Generic Grouper agent, for general queries; GSH agent, template and daemon expertise. WS agent low-key writes web services with ease.
- Provisioners. The Okta provisioner is new. LogicGate and BP Logix workflows too. Rules—veto if invalid source of subjects. Add group as member if a match of regex.
- SQL sync with minimum rows failsafe in place. API additions mean more helpers to embrace. Snowflake performance is no longer your adversary.
- Training. On-demand training VMs have hatched, giving you more time to learn and saving Internet2 some scratch. Focused instructor-led training, practical use cases. Self-paced advanced topics—set your own paces. Various bundle options—pick what you need; Internals sharpened—your IAM acumen will exceed.
About Grouper
Grouper is an enterprise access management platform that simplifies authorization by automating and delegating administration of groups and roles in your organization. Grouper is part of the InCommon Trusted Access Platform, an IAM suite of software designed to integrate with existing systems. Our roadmap is based on community input. Grouper, the access management component of the InCommon Trusted Access Platform, evolves to meet the community’s needs.
ICYMI
- ABAC to the Future: Loaders? Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need Loaders
- Tech Ex-citement and Revamped Training
- The “Intersection” of Grouper and AI: Opportunities and Next Steps
- Community Collaborates to Enhance Grouper Documentation
- Watch: Bridging the Gap: Integrating Authentication with Authorization to Solve Critical Access Challenges in Higher Ed
