Cognos 8 and ReportNet support the implementation of custom Java based authentication providers. Custom authentication providers enable Cognos to point at a customer specific source for authentication and authorization. For example, security credentials may be stored in a proprietary database or in some security system, not supported by Cognos out-of-the-box.

Motio has implemented numerous custom authentication providers for a large number of Cognos customers. Having solved this problem numerous times in a wide variety of environments, we've incorporated best practices to create a generic, well designed framework which allows one to implement a full custom authentication provider quickly and efficiently.

There are a number of subtleties and potential pitfalls when developing a custom authentication provider. Some of these can leave holes in your security system, and others can cause Cognos to function incorrectly or inefficiently. Most of these issues will only be discovered "the hard way". This framework embeds solutions to these issues so that they are taken care of automatically, and exposes convenient flexpoints for you to hook it in to your particular environment. Using the MotioCAP framework WILL dramatically reduce the time required to implement a full custom security provider (often by as much as 90%), and will ensure a robust and fully functional implementation.