Brokering a connection to access a secured service

#This invention relates to providing access to a secured service.

#A secured service may require the provision of authentication information before allowing a connection to be established from a client seeking access. Various secured services may be accessed simultaneously by one client, each generally requiring the accessing client to provide authentication information that is duplicative or additional to the authentication information provided to the other secured services before allowing access to be established. For instance, a client may establish a connection with a first secured service by providing the first secured service with first authentication information. Thereafter, the same client seeking access to other secured services may be required again to provide those other secured services with second authentication information that is duplicative and/or additional to the first authentication information provided to the first secured service.

#In one general aspect, leveraging a persistent connection to provide a client access to a secured service includes establishing a persistent connection with the client in response to a first request from the client, and brokering a connection between the client and a secured service based on a second request from the client by leveraging the persistent connection with the client. The brokering may occur before the client attempts to connect to the secured service directly and the connection may be established between the client and the secured service without provision by the client of authentication information duplicative or additional to authentication information provided by the client to establish the persistent connection.

#FIG. 1 is a is a schematic diagram of a system configured to provide a client having an established persistent connection with access to a secured service.

#FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a system, as in FIG. 1, in which the secured service is an IMAP mail service.

#FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a system, as in FIG. 1, in which the secured service is a synchronization service.

#Like reference symbols in the various drawings may indicate like elements.

#For illustrative purposes, a process is described for leveraging a persistent connection to provide access to a secured service, and systems and software for implementing the process also are described. For clarity of exposition, the description generally proceeds from an account of general elements and their high level relationship to a detailed account of illustrative roles, configurations, and components of the elements.

#Referring to FIG. 1, a generalized system 100 may be used to permit a client 110 to leverage a persistent connection 101 to a persistent connection service 130 by which access may be gained to a secured service 170, in which gaining access to the secured service 170 may or may not include establishing another persistent connection with the secured service 170. Exemplary components of the system 100 are described in greater detail below.