Sun Microsystems plans to open-source its Web site authentication and single sign-on technology. It plans to make the open-source code available in the fourth quarter.

Eric Leach, director of product management at Sun, said the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company will open-source the technology through the Open Source Web Single Sign-On, or OpenSSO project. That effort includes technology related to authentication, single domain, single sign-on, Web agents and J2EE agents, he said.

Sun is the first big identity-management player to open-source a component of its technology, according to Leach. The move also means that Sun is changing the industry's approach to Web security, he added.

"This lets people start focusing on more important capabilities like single sign-on across partners, compliance across distributed partner networks, and looking at things like how to provision and manage identities," Leach said.