Single Sign-On (SSO) has been used by several enterprises for several years but its importance has unchangingly been underrated. Now, that workplace flexibility is commonplace, employees expect easy wangle to a variety of applications. People do not enjoy lengthy and repetitive login procedures every time they want to wangle an using or a service.
With the growing dependency on the deject and several third-party services, businesses need to enable their employees with instant and hassle-free wangle to their productivity suite, from anywhere and on any device. In this article, we will talk well-nigh what single sign-on is and everything you need to know well-nigh it.
What Is Single Sign-On (SSO)?
Single Sign-On (SSO) is a mode of identification that allows users to wangle multiple apps and websites using a single set of credentials. SSO can be used by enterprises or individuals to simplify the management of passwords and usernames wideness various platforms and accounts. A popular example of a single sign-on is when you log into your Google account, and that automatically logs you into your G-mail and YouTube accounts, without the need for repeated hallmark or the use of unique credentials for every platform.
Why Is Single Sign-On Important?
Single Sign-On performs identity verification, which is a vital part of the identity and wangle management process. It helps organizations to personize the identity of their employees, as well as grant roles and permissions based on their identity to wangle corporate networks and resources efficiently.
How Does Single Sign-On Work?
Single Sign-On works on federated identity which links users’ identities wideness multiple domains and networks to enable users to demonstrate themselves using the same set of credentials for multiple platforms. Once users are authenticated for one system, they are automatically granted wangle to all the other linked platforms.
If you are wondering how this is achieved, it is considering every time the users log themselves in using the SSO credentials, an authenticated token is generated and stored on the SSO solution’s server. Whichever app or website the users visit next, will automatically trammels their SSO service for their login credentials and grant them access.
There are two main elements in making an SSO work, the service provider and the identity provider. The service provider is the one who provides a service or product such as an app or a website. The identity provider is a system that manages all the user hallmark credentials.
Here’s how it works:
- The user accesses a website or an using that he wishes to use.
- The website or app generates an hallmark token and shares it with the identity provider.
- The identity provider then sends a response to the service provider, i.e. the app or website.
- The user is then prompted to enter his credentials and log in.
- Once the user’s credentials are verified successfully, he will be granted wangle to other websites and apps without the need to log in repeatedly.
What Are the Benefits of Single Sign-On?
1. Greater Security and Compliance
SSO is designed with an intention of enhancing the enterprise security infrastructure. With the rising rate of cyber crimes and the stringent privacy laws that can put your merchantry in jeopardy, SSO is a method that can reinforce your data security. How? The hallmark token that is generated in the process of single sign-on resides on the inside SSO server which is highly impenetrable and the login data cannot be cached. Flipside reason why SSO enhances corporate security is that users do not need to use multiple passwords for multiple platforms, which reduces the wade surface considerably.
2. Reduces Password Fatigue
IT admins are in tuition of their organization’s data security among many other things and insist that employees use a unique password for every platform and worth that they use. This, however, ways that a single employee needs to generate and remember dozens of passwords and usernames, leading to password fatigue. Most customers skip using apps and vellicate off websites simply considering they do not want to generate yet flipside password. SSO cuts lanugo the number of logins sharply and reduces password fatigue in users.
3. Improves User Experience
SSO relieves users of remembering myriad passwords. All of us, at some point, have forgotten passwords, tried nonflexible to recollect and spent time and efforts executing uneaten steps of forgetting and resetting passwords just to proceeds wangle to a portal. Yes, having to remember every password you have overly created is hard. SSO relieves users of remembering myriad passwords and improves their overall experience
4. Saves Time
Humans are not wired to remember everything as machines do. Unfortunately, the inability to remember your passwords ways that you will not be worldly-wise to proceeds wangle to your valuable services and platforms. The worthiness to log in to multiple finance with a single sign-on ways that employees have to remember just one password. This automatically reduces the number of support tickets that are raised to the IT help sedentary for forgotten passwords. Time and effort are saved for both employees and the IT teams.
5. Prevents Shadow IT
Shadow IT occurs when employees shirk their corporate policies and make use of apps, services and websites that have not been unliable by their enterprise. These compliance violations can rationalization corporate data breaches and land the organization in unconfined trouble. With SSO however, the user’s worriedness and wangle details of various apps and websites are indirectly monitored which can help the enterprise IT teams to snift compliance violations and take measures to restore security.
Examples of the Leading SSO Solutions?
There are various types of SSO protocols that are used by SSO services such as SAML-based SSO, OAuth, OpenID Connect, etc. based on the hallmark process that they follow. As businesses protract to realize the value of SSO, increasingly and increasingly enterprises are seeking SSO solutions for their organizations.
Some of the popular SSO solutions that are currently dominating the market are:
- Okta
- Ping Identity
- Auth0
- One Login
- JumpCloud
Scalefusion MDM Seamlessly Integrates With SSO Solution
Scalefusion MDM allows IT admins to leverage SAML-based SSO using Okta and PingOne identity providers. The integration of these SSO solutions with the Scalefusion dashboard eliminates the need for IT admins to remember passwords and ensures easy wangle to the Scalefusion dashboard. Scalefusion previously enabled SSO using O365 and G-Suite. However, with the Okta integration, users need not be O365 or G-Suite users to leverage the SSO capability
Closing Lines
As deject services proceeds traction, user authentications are going to be a vital part of enterprise security. Single Sign-Ons are a unconfined way to simplify the management of user credentials without overburdening your IT, lowering your users’ wits or lowering your security efforts.