HKAF

Established in 2016, the Hong Kong Access Federation (HKAF) is Hong Kong’s leading identity broker, enabling access to online resources for the Education and Research sector. The HKAF is a vital part of the Hong Kong research infrastructure landscape facilitating trusted electronic communications and collaboration between education and research institutions both locally and internationally.

 

The HKAF is owned and managed by the Joint Universities Computer Centre Ltd. (JUCC).

 

The Federation, which is the product provided by the HKAF is a combination of technology and policy which provides a trust framework. It provides subscribers with a cross-organisation single sign-on that allows individuals across many different organisations to collaborate and access online resources within a trusted environment.

 

By logging in via the HKAF, End Users will be able to access a variety of services including scientific instrumentation, administrative systems, scholarly resources and teaching, learning and research resources.

 

HKAF lowers the costs and effort associated with federated identity management in each individual subscriber organisation. It also removes inter-organisational barriers to collaboration by enabling people to quickly and easily connect with electronic resources. Resource providers are also able to quickly and easily connect their services to half million people connected to the HKAF today.

 

Operating as a shared service, the HKAF subscriber base will encompass leading organisations in the Research and Education sector, these include:

  • all public universities funded by the University Grant Committee (UGC) in Hong Kong,
  • self-financing universities in Hong Kong,
  • organisations providing online products or services for teaching, learning and research.

 

The HKAF Federation Policy specifies the relevant procedures and practices. Complementary technology profiles are describing implementation of the policy in terms of specific technologies.

 

The HKAF maintains the components necessary for operating the Federation and also serves as the registrar for subscribing organisations (Members).