An interesting move! Experts say that right now SharePoint is fairly limited with authentication. You can use NTLM (ancient and inefficient), Basic (used with SSL and the clear-text passwords are SO not good) or Kerberos (complex to configure, but better performance) or use MS Single Sign-On. This new move sounds like a great way to open up their collaboration platform to third party options, which are what most companies use. Experts say that the MS SSO model isn't very popular with users, so maybe Microsoft felt pressured to make this change in the SharePoint world to appease a large client. The story says: "Microsoft is replacing the authentication system for SharePoint Server and plans to make the collaboration platform one of the first of the company’s marquee applications to rely on a new claims-based identity model."

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