Using IIS for State Management

Is it possible to use IIS for state management in an Intranet AND Extranet environment?

What I'm trying to do is to preserve session information for a user (including permissions regarding resources and apps) across different web applications. This setup will function as a portal in a way, but we won't require the user to log in from a certain page.

So for example, Joe Smith might log into app A from outside the domain. When Joe is done, I want him to be able to open app B without having to log in again. I'd like to do the same with local users who are part of the domain.

Some of these web pages will be in .NET, others will be in CF. As a result, I think sharing session info between them will be difficult. The only way I can think to do it is through a database or somehow through IIS. Browser cookies won't work because we will have a myriad of different browser types.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.