AD FS 2.0 shipped on May 5, 2010.  Why am I just getting around to blogging about it now you might ask.  Hmm.  Spend some vacation time in Paris with my wife … or come out of blog retirement?  But hey, “Better late than never, right?” 

As you can see from the date of my last post, I don’t like to take up your time unless I believe it’s really worth your while.  In November 2008 I moved from product development into an architectural role, working with governments on how to utilize federated, claims-based identity to ensure the safe, online delivery of public services to citizens.  But before I moved on I made you a promise that AD FS 2.0 would deliver SAML 2.0 protocol support. 

Last September AD FS 2.0 passed the Liberty Alliance SAML interoperability testing for our original design goals with flying colours.  Now all the fit and finish is done, and you too can experience the IdP Lite and SP Lite Operational Modes from the SAML 2.0 Conformance Specification, plus the eGov 1.5 Profile. 

But wait, there’s more.  AD FS 2.0 supports WS-Trust and WS-Federation too.  And as much as I love ADFSv1 (parental pride you know) … its big brother is so much easier to manage using federation metadata, automatic certificate rollover, and easy farm setup for high availability.  Plus out-of-the-box, AD FS 2.0 offers a policy interface for claims issuance and supports a SQL attribute store as well as Active Directory.  This is one powerful, but Admin-friendly Security Token Service.  I know you’ll find it worth the wait.

I want to congratulate the AD FS Development Team for staying the course, and serving up a job well done!  You can meet some of those heroes here, in several Channel 9 videos where they guide you through the features and capabilities of AD FS 2.0.