Empower Your Institution’s Future with InCommon
As a CIO, you need to connect IT investments to your institution’s mission. InCommon delivers identity and access management at scale through the InCommon Federation, Certificate Service, and Trusted Access Platform. With community-driven governance and infrastructure, you gain the trust, security, and reliability needed to advance institutional success.
How InCommon Helps CIOs Lead with Impact
- Frameworks that align IAM with institutional goals
- Shared services that reduce cost and duplication
- Peer collaboration with higher-ed CIOs
- Community governance for lasting trust
- Proven impact from research & education institutions
- Thought leadership shared across the globe
Shape the Future of Your Institution with InCommon
InCommon empowers CIOs to align institutional IT with strategic priorities. From governance and policy frameworks to peer networks and community-led innovation, our services deliver immediate value while supporting long-term institutional success.
Strategic Guidance & Frameworks
Tools and resources that help CIOs connect IAM strategy to institutional goals and future-proof decision-making.
Leadership & Peer Collaboration
Opportunities to share insights with higher-ed leaders facing the same challenges you are.
Institution-Wide Enablement
Services designed to scale identity and access across complex campus environments.
Strategic Alignment
Ensure technology investments support your institution’s long-term goals.
Student & Faculty Success
Enable secure, seamless access that empowers learning and research.
Cost Efficiency
Leverage shared infrastructure to reduce duplication and manage resources wisely.
Peer Leadership
Collaborate with CIOs across the national higher-ed community.
Future-Ready Planning
Stay ahead of technological change with standards-based solutions.
Institutional Reputation
Build trust with secure, scalable identity systems.
Featured Resources
Expanding Academic Horizons: How Federated Identity Can Transform Cross-Institutional Learning
2024 has been a pivotal year for InCommon, fueled by our Futures2 Strategy pushing new explorations and investments across the community. In reviewing our 20-year history, one of this year’s initiatives stands out as having the significant potential to again transform the community in profound ways. In researching where we could make our biggest impact, we discovered that course-sharing is a remarkably powerful and under-utilized tool in higher education, offering the opportunity to increase academic breadth without increasing costs. To explore this topic, we partnered with IDEA, a consortium of leading U.S. public universities, working together to offer online, flexible, and affordable programs in human sciences and agriculture. What makes IDEA special? They’re showing us all how true collaboration can work – creating degree programs that no single institution could offer alone. As with any cross-institutional effort, course-sharing brings complexity when it comes to enabling access for learners. IDEA approached InCommon with a clear challenge: Students are juggling multiple email addresses, usernames, and passwords, making for a frustrating experience when trying to access and navigate course materials provided by multiple institutions. We’re working to address this pain point with the InCommon Federation. So far, we’ve consulted with over 30 stakeholders across over a dozen institutions, both inside and outside of IDEA, from organizations of all sizes. This group has included a wide array of perspectives, from faculty, program coordinators, and security officers to chief information officers, identity and access management implementers, learning management system owners, and deans. Through this process, we’re beginning to understand that IDEA is not the only group who can benefit from leveraging federated identity for cross-institutional teaching and learning. Federated identities can support access, security, and scalability for a number of powerful use cases, including: Standing up new programs by offering courses in partnership with peer universities Sharing library resources across institutions Facilitating dual-enrollment and bridge program partnerships, and Other creative efforts to open up access beyond university walls We’re beginning the process to develop a Teaching & Learning Toolkit that will provide a path to leverage the InCommon Federation to enable cross-institutional access to courses and resources. The more voices involved in the creation of this resource, the stronger it will be. Share Your Feedback What Would You Like to See in a Toolkit? Come find us at TechEx to share your perspective, and Drop us a line at help@InCommon.org if you’d like to get early access to share your feedback as we build out this toolkit InCommon is excited to work alongside you in creating tools and pathways that make cross-institutional collaboration not just possible, but seamless. Here’s to making education more accessible, one connection at a time.
Benefits of InCommon BaseCAMP: Hear it from Former First-Timers
BaseCAMP, InCommon’s annual virtual event for identity and access management (IAM) professionals, is only a few weeks away. Every year, people in research and higher education who are new to IAM and the InCommon community come to BaseCAMP to explore topics related to federated identity, stay current on IAM services, and network with their peers. Over the past half-decade, institutions worldwide have sent their teams to BaseCAMP to learn from thought leaders in IAM. BaseCAMP, held online this year June 1-5, includes content and interactive sessions for a variety of IAM team members of all skill levels and interests, from IAM architects to project managers and beyond. Recently, some BaseCAMP alumni with different career backgrounds sat with us to share their experiences. Below are videos and abbreviated responses from their interviews, with some of their answers edited for clarity. https://youtu.be/fAD4HgxXkMk https://youtu.be/q1FroDobfeA IDENTITY & ACCESS MANAGEMENT LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES Ben Rappleyea, manager of the Office of Identity and Access Management at Illinois State University Q: Why did you attend BaseCAMP for the first time? A: We went there in 2020. We were really investigating options for replacing our current identity management system that we had been running since 2014. BaseCAMP was an introduction to the applications that we were looking at, and we wanted to … get to know people who were using them already.We got exactly what we wanted out of that. We didn’t expect to go in and learn how to do everything to get it set up and running. We went in with the expectation of meeting people, finding out what questions we needed to ask and what we needed to do going forward to actually plan out our implementation. Q: What’s a moment from BaseCAMP that really stuck with you and why? A: I remember being inspired, if you will, by the presentation “What’s Next in Grouper” by Chris Hyzer. He had been talking about what they were going to be doing in the near future, and it honestly rang true with everything that we were trying to do at ISU. We didn’t know at the time when we were going into BaseCAMP that we needed Grouper. … That presentation told us that we needed Grouper and we started plans to implement it shortly thereafter. Q: In your opinion, what type of person, role, or professional would benefit the most from going to BaseCAMP? A: I’d say it’s honestly open to a lot of different roles. The idea is to engage with more than just the leaders and the implementers of the technology and connect with the people who are utilizing the tools to achieve the outcomes that they are needing to meet in real-world situations. That’s the whole goal of BaseCAMP—in my opinion—to engage people and connect with them. Q: Would you say BaseCAMP has positively impacted you professionally? Being a part of BaseCAMP impacted me professionally by getting me into a network of users and administrators who have similar goals and environments but are also willing to talk about what they do on a daily basis. Previously, we had been in a closed source environment, a proprietary environment for our identity management system, and we had no say in how it was implemented.With the [InCommon Trusted Access Platform] software, we are able to reach out to the people who develop the software and say, ‘Hey, it would be nice if we could do this.’ And within a couple of months, that feature will show up occasionally. It’s a great community to be able to reach out to people and get problems solved. WHAT SETS BASECAMP APART Stacey Poertner, IAM role engineer and business analyst at Virginia Tech Q: What were your expectations going to BaseCAMP for the first time? A: I wanted to learn about InCommon, Internet2, and anything related to IAM. It definitely met my expectations because of the range of the sessions that were offered, and it connected me to other schools and people who are in a similar role to me. Q: Is there anything that sets BaseCAMP apart from other events? A: There definitely is. For me, it was having the opportunity to ask questions and have discussions. Sometimes, when you attend other training sessions, you may not have that opportunity. I really enjoyed … talking to presenters and peers to help solve similar problems. Q: Would you say BaseCAMP has positively impacted you professionally? A: Personally, it was such a good decision to ask my supervisor if I could attend. I now have a better understanding of the terminology and components of IAM. Q: In your opinion, who should go to BaseCAMP? A: I recommend [BaseCAMP] to anybody who deals with identity access management. You could be new, or you could be in your role for a while, but I really do encourage individuals who are new, like me. Q: If you had to summarize your BaseCAMP experience, what would you say? A: BaseCAMP has something for everybody. Anyone [who is] new to identity management or [has been] working with IAM for a while will greatly benefit due to the various sessions, activities, and even the connections you make within training. REGISTER FOR INCOMMON BASECAMP 2026 Are you interested in this opportunity to take the next step on your IAM journey? Do you have a team that would benefit from the variety of programming at BaseCAMP? Don’t miss this opportunity to dive into IAM fundamentals and connect with a community of IAM professionals. BaseCAMP runs June 1-5. Register now to save your seat at BaseCAMP 2026.
Explore Learning Opportunities
Discover strategic resources that help CIOs align IT investments with institutional priorities. From leadership forums to executive-level briefings, InCommon provides the insights and peer connections you need to lead with confidence.
Share Your Expertise
Shape the national conversation on higher-ed technology strategy. Contribute your perspective as a CIO within the InCommon community to strengthen institutional resilience and innovation across research and education.