Single-sign-on (SSO) has become an indispensable technology for organizations when it comes to securing their applications, websites, and internal resources from unauthorized access. It is ideally suited for the modern enterprise that has thousands of users accessing thousands of apps and web resources, all at the same time. Here are the top three ways organizations can integrate their business applications and other assets with a robust SSO solution.
The world is moving to the cloud. That’s where all the future innovation is taking place. Internal IT no longer wants to support on-prem applications, and who can blame them? Allowing your users to pull up their critical applications using a simple web browser regardless of location has huge advantages. It means fewer application servers to support and maintain and negates the need for the mundane practice of patching, upgrading, and troubleshooting. Think about SaaS as a utopia. However, cloud-based applications have their challenges as well, and one is identity management.Â
Why SSO, and Not LDAP, Is Best for Securing User Accounts
Authentication is a breeze when all your applications reside within your on-prem domain that’s tied to the local Active Directory. The tried-and-true authentication protocol for decades has been the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). In a traditional network that utilizes LDAP, all user accounts are stored on a centralized server. When users log on to their stations in the morning, their credentials are forwarded to the centralized domain controller. Once users are logged on, the local domain controller issues them a Kerberos ticket to confirm their identity and privileges for all connection requests concerning files, servers, and applications. In the case of an on-prem application, users access them by presenting their tickets. Once validated, the user can work with the application using their assigned privilege. Users have become accustomed to this type of single sign-on experience over the years.Â
However, the process of showing your ticket to each application isn’t possible in a Software-as-a-Service world because applications are hosted on different provider platforms. As a result, users must complete an authentication session for each application they wish to sign on to. For users who bounce back and forth between multiple applications throughout the day, the whole experience would prove highly annoying and inefficient without some centralized authenticator to streamline the process. The act of forcing users to remember and input multiple passwords throughout their day also opens them up to security issues. Hence the need for single sign-on (SSO).Â
See More: What Is Single Sign-On (SSO)? Definition, Process, and Best Practices
Three Ways to Integrate Business Applications With SSOÂ
Using the SAML SSO process
With SSO, a web-based application authenticates the user using an identity management platform. This typically involves using Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), an open standard that allows a web application to transfer authentication data between the identity provider and the service provider. The service provider is the entity offering the web application and requires the authentication services of the identity provider to verify a user’s credentials. When a user first requests usage of a web application for the first time, the identity provider requires the user to log on with their full credentials. The identity provider then sends SAML attributes to the service provider to confirm the identity. The identity provider can also answer other authentication requests throughout the day so that the user’s initial sign-on is leveraged for multiple requests. Hence the phrase, single sign-on.
Using the OAuth SSO process
Open authorization (OAuth) is another SSO technology somewhat newer than SAML. It allows users to access one service from another without reentering their login credentials. For instance, you may have used your Facebook account or Gmail address to access a service or another site. This is ideal for cloud resources geared towards personal users rather than enterprise users. While SAML confirms a user’s identity, OAuth confirms a user’s privileges. While SAML grants you access to something, OAuth dictates what you can do once inside. While the two utilize different approaches, they can work in tandem with one another. OAuth is ideal when granular privileges are involved.Â
Manually integrating applications with SSO
Perhaps the easiest way to implement single sign-on is to integrate manually with an existing identity provider. Some of the largest SAML-based identity providers include companies such as Okta, Microsoft Azure, and Salesforce. You can use multiple ID providers, but you must build a separate integration for each one. In the case of Office 365, integrating with Azure AD is obvious, while large identity providers such as Okta or OneLogin serve thousands of applications. Most of the larger SSO providers provide well-documented SDKs to make it easier for developers to integrate their applications. Otherwise, they will have to build the integrations from scratch. You can also use your on-prem AD environment as the identity provider. This process of authenticating one domain to another is known as federation.Â
See More: Top Five Single Sign-On Platforms of 2022
The Downside of Enterprise SSO: Loss of Control
As mentioned earlier, using OAuth, Gmail can serve as an identity provider for other applications. This process involves the formation of a web page hosted by the identity provider or an embedded widget supported by code. While farming out your SSO functionality to a third party creates less work, it also concedes control over other things than just the application access. For instance, potential users interested in creating a trial account with your service must first be authenticated by the OAuth provider, thus taking you out of the picture.
The solution: Building your own SSO system
If you are a service provider and don’t feel that a pre-built SSO solution provider can service your needs, you can always choose to create your SSO platform. While this approach gives you complete control over the SSO process, it also takes your developers off their primary mission of creating core software solutions. In addition to having the right personnel to create the necessary code and maintain the platform, you must also provide support for customers with problems with the SSO process.
Conclusion
While SSO may have been considered a luxury ten years ago, it is an essential function that organizations of all types must depend on as more applications, and digital resources go to the cloud. For SaaS providers, SSO is part of the equation today, and it’s important to understand all the available options.
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