System and method for providing anonymous access to shared resources

1. A method comprising, on a broker server comprising a computer processor and memory, wherein the broker server provides single sign-on (SSO) access to shared resources:

creating an anonymous target that generically represents anonymous users;

assigning at least a portion of the shared resources to the anonymous target;

receiving a request for anonymous access from a client system of an anonymous user, wherein the request for anonymous access excludes credentials;

responsive to the request for anonymous access:

generating, by the broker server, single-session anonymous-user credentials for the anonymous user, wherein the single-session anonymous-user credentials are not presented to or provided by the anonymous user;

determining the shared resources assigned to the anonymous target;

communicating at least a portion of the determined shared resources to the client system as authorized anonymous-access resources;

responsive to the communicating, receiving a request from the client system to access a target resource of the authorized anonymous-access resources;

responsive to the request to access the target resource, causing an anonymous-user account to be created on the target resource using the single-session anonymous-user credentials; and

allowing the client system anonymous SSO access to the target resource via the anonymous-user account and without the client system providing credentials to the broker server.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the assigning comprises assigning virtual desktops and related resources to the anonymous target.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the related resources are selected from the group consisting of: applications, mapped drives, mapped printers, user-profile settings, environment variables, application shortcuts, connection policies, desktop background bitmap, login settings, and host restrictions.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein:

the related resources comprise at least one application; and

the at least one application authenticates the anonymous user in a non-anonymous fashion as the anonymous user accesses the at least one application.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating of the single-session anonymous-user credentials comprises randomly generating a user name and a password.

6. The method of claim 1 , comprising, prior to the generating, returning a session cookie to the client system, the session cookie comprising a random identifier mapped to the request for anonymous access.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining comprises querying a data store for the shared resources assigned to the anonymous target.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the causing comprises sending a message to the target resource, the message comprising an instruction to add the anonymous-user account to a resource group for the target resource.

9. The method of claim 1 , comprising, upon logout by the anonymous user from the target resource, destroying the anonymous-user account.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the destroying comprises:

removing the anonymous-user account from a resource group for the target resource;

deleting a user profile associated with the anonymous-user account; and

deleting any user data created within the anonymous user's session.

11. The method of claim 1 , comprising enabling anonymous access on the broker server.

12. The method of claim 1 , comprising authenticating the single-session anonymous-user credentials on the target resource.

13. The method of claim 1 , comprising authenticating the single-session anonymous-user credentials on the client system.

14. An information handling system comprising a computer processor, wherein the computer processor is operable to implement a method, the method comprising:

creating an anonymous target that generically represents anonymous users;

assigning shared resources to the anonymous target;

receiving a request for anonymous access from a client system of an anonymous user, wherein the request for anonymous access excludes credentials;

responsive to the request for anonymous access:

generating, by the information handling system, single-session anonymous-user credentials for the anonymous user, wherein the single-session anonymous-user credentials are not presented to or provided by the anonymous user;

determining the shared resources assigned to the anonymous target;

communicating at least a portion of the determined shared resources to the client system as authorized anonymous-access resources;

responsive to the communicating, receiving a request from the client system to access a target resource of the authorized anonymous-access resources;

causing an anonymous-user account to be created on the target resource using the single-session anonymous-user credentials; and

allowing the client system anonymous single sign-on access to the target resource via the anonymous-user account and without the client system providing credentials to the information handling system.

15. The information handling system of claim 14 , wherein the assigning comprises assigning virtual desktops and related resources to the anonymous target.

16. The information handling system of claim 15 , wherein:

the related resources comprise at least one application; and

the at least one application authenticates the anonymous user in a non-anonymous fashion as the anonymous user accesses the at least one application.

17. The information handling system of claim 14 , wherein the causing comprises sending a message to the target resource, the message comprising an instruction to add the anonymous-user account to a resource group for the target resource.

18. The information handling system of claim 14 , comprising, upon logout by the anonymous user from the target resource, destroying the anonymous-user account.

19. The information handling system of claim 18 , wherein the destroying comprises:

removing the anonymous-user account from a resource group for the target resource;

deleting a user profile associated with the anonymous-user account; and

deleting any user data created within the anonymous user's session.

20. A computer-program product comprising a non-transitory computer-usable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method comprising:

creating an anonymous target that generically represents anonymous users;

assigning at least a portion of the shared resources to the anonymous target;

receiving a request for anonymous access from a client system of an anonymous user, wherein the request for anonymous access excludes credentials;

responsive to the request for anonymous access:

generating, by a broker server that provides single sign-on (SSO) access to shared resources, single-session anonymous-user credentials for the anonymous user, wherein the single-session anonymous-user credentials are not presented to or provided by the anonymous user;

determining the shared resources assigned to the anonymous target;

communicating at least a portion of the determined shared resources to the client system as authorized anonymous-access resources;

responsive to the communicating, receiving a request from the client system to access a target resource of the authorized anonymous-access resources;

responsive to the request to access the target resource, causing an anonymous-user account to be created on the target resource using the single-session anonymous-user credentials; and

allowing the client system anonymous SSO access to the target resource via the anonymous-user account and without the client system providing credentials to the broker server.