1. A method for providing federated functionality within a data processing system, the method comprising: receiving a first request at a first computing system for federation services from an identity provider, wherein the first request is made by a first requester; initializing an instance of an application to provide requested federation services for the first requester, the instance of the application resulting in a first specialized runtime which is specialized according to configuration data of a federation relationship of the first requestor with the identity provider, wherein the configuration data is dynamically retrieved during initialization of the runtime; and providing the requested federation services using the specialized runtime.