The identity cloud platform code-named , which will complement Microsoft's Azure cloud OS, will grab a spotlight at next month's annual TechEd conference."

"We will make a series of announcements [around Geneva] at TechEd," said JG Chirapurath, director of the identity and security business group at Microsoft. The company said in October when it introduced Geneva and shipped the first beta that a second beta would arrive in the first half of 2009.

Microsoft officials also said the final ship would come in the second half of the year, but Chirapurath qualified that timeframe.

"It is on track for delivery at the end of the year," he said.

Geneva is an open identity platform that extends to the cloud and includes development tools, gateway technologies and provides long-awaited Microsoft support for the SAML 2.0 protocol.