HP will launch a cloud identity service on Feb. 7, providing a universal access point and authentication to all HP cloud services and OpenStack’s identity-based Keystone API.

According to an HP Web site, the new identity service will serve as a foundation layer to build and grow its capabilities for HP Cloud Service offerings with the ability to:

• Access HP Cloud Compute, HP Cloud Object Storage, and all future services with one set of credentials instead of unique credentials for each service
• Use a single API endpoint for token management and user authentication instead of individual endpoints for each service
• Combine various Compute and Object Storage resources into a tenant or group of resources, allowing for easier resource management
• Access a catalog of the HP Cloud Services available to you at any time

As opposed to Microsoft, there’s less of a question about HP’s commitment to OpenStack. But I have been wondering exactly what HP had planned. This is a smart move. Identity is fundamental to building an open, federated stack. You need it to interconnect different services across the network. Good move by HP.

Reference point: Dell’s Robert Hirschfeld explains how OpenStack Keystone is making some smart moves to improve its quality.