Not so fast, pilgrim. According to Amdahl's Law, the scalability of all things digital is controlled by the slowest elements, not the speediest. Large consumer federated networks are going to encounter natural resistance from real-world constraints, starting with authentication.

Pundits put federated networks in the identity management taxonomy, where they're treated as infrastructure because they include a directory to support a plethora of security systems. Under the identity management umbrella are centralized administration and life-cycle management of user ID data and attributes, log-in synchronization across multiple applications, single sign-on, authentication and policy-based access control.

Authentication and identity management overlap, but authentication is more accurately viewed separately. Predictions have generally pegged both the authentication and the identity management marketplaces for rapid double-digit growth, with identity management pulling ahead and posting more than US$10 billion in annual sales by around 2007, according to IDC.

The rubber meets the road for identity management with authentication. Authentication means users, and users always increase uncertainty and cost. Watch deployments of endpoint client software for realistic indicators of scalability as the neat and tidy digital world collides with the messy analog one.

Order prevails in the enterprise identity-management marketplace, on federated networks serving supply and in distribution chains for large multinationals like General Electric, Toyota or Boeing. Such federated networks are built on high levels of trust. Suppliers seeking to do business with the large multinationals readily adopt the required authentication standards as a cost of doing business. The authentication on-ramps to federated networks are reasonably tidy and orderly in this trusted model.