Data processing system, method, and program product for automating account creation in a network

• US 6,182,131 B1
• Filed: 07/17/1998
• Issued: 01/30/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dean, Jeffrey Randell, Rodriguez, Ingrid Milagros, Howard, Jeffrey Langdon
• Primary Examiner(s): Coulter, Kenneth R.
• Application Number:
  US09/118,557
• Time in Patent Office: 928 Days
• Field of Search: 709/222
• US Class Current: 709/222
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A data processing system, method, and program product for automating creation of accounts in a network are disclosed. According to the method, an account registry for a first network is accessed in response to a selected input in order to obtain account information including a plurality of usernames. The account information is then provided to an account manager for a second network that, in response to receipt of the account information, automatically creates accounts in the second network for each of the plurality of usernames.

Claims

1. A program product, comprising:

a computer-usable medium; and

an account utility encoded in said computer-usable medium, wherein responsive to receipt of account creation criteria identifying accounts among a plurality of accounts in an account registry of a first network and at least one item of account information, said account utility causes a computer to extract from identified accounts in the account registry only items of account information that satisfy that account creation criteria and to electronically provide said extracted items of account information to an account manager for a second network, wherein the extracted items of account information include at least the username of each identified account but less than all items of account information for the identified accounts.

2. The program product of claim 1, and further comprising an account manager that, in response to receipt of said extracted items of account information, causes a computer to automatically create accounts in said second network for each username extracted from the account registry.

3. The program product of claim 2, wherein said account manager causes a computer to automatically create accounts in said second network that each have an associated username that identically matches a username of an identified account.

4. The program product of claim 1, wherein said identified accounts include less than all of said plurality of accounts in said account registry.

5. An automated method for creating accounts in a network, said method comprising:

accessing an account registry of a first network, wherein said account registry contains a plurality of accounts that each contain a username and at least one other item of account information;

in response to receipt of account creation criteria identifying accounts among said plurality of accounts and at least one item of account information, extracting from identified accounts among said plurality of accounts only items of account information that satisfy the account creation criteria, wherein the extracted items of account information include at least the username of each identified account but less than all items of account information for the identified accounts;

electronically providing said extracted items of account information to an account manager for a second network; and

in response to receipt of said extracted items of account information by said account manager, automatically creating an account in said second network for each username extracted from the account registry utilizing the extracted items of account information.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said second network is a subset of said first network and wherein automatically creating an account comprises automatically creating an account for said subset of said first network for each username extracted from the account registry.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein extracting account information from identified accounts comprises extracting account information from less than all of said plurality of accounts.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein automatically creating accounts in said second network for each of said plurality of usernames comprises automatically creating accounts in said second network that each have an associated username that identically matches a username of an identified account.

9. A data processing system, comprising:

an account registry that contains a plurality of accounts for users of a first network, wherein each of said plurality of accounts contains a username and at least one other item of account information;

an account utility that, in response to receipt of account creation criteria identifying accounts among said plurality of accounts and at least one item of account information, extracts from identified accounts in the account registry only items of account information that satisfy the account creation criteria and electronically provides the extracted items of account information to an account manager for a second network, wherein the extracted items of account information include at least the username of each identified account but less than all items of account information for the identified accounts; and

computing resources that run said account registry and said account utility.

10. The data processing system of claim 9, and further comprising:

an account manager that, in response to receipt of said extracted items of account information, automatically creates accounts in said second network for each username extracted from the account registry utilizing the extracted items of account information.

11. The data processing system of claim 10, wherein said second network is a subset of said first network.

12. The data processing system of claim 10, wherein said account manager automatically creates accounts in said second network that each have an associated username that identically matches a username of an identified account.

13. The data processing system of claim 9, wherein said identified accounts include less than all of said plurality of accounts in said account registry.