Single Sign-On (SSO) is an authentication process mostly used inside an organization to manage the user’s ability to access various cloud-based applications via a single set of login credentials.
SSO eliminates the need for users to remember and update several sets of usernames and passwords and by doing it so it greatly increases the control and security IT departments enforces inside the organization to protect unauthorized personnel from accessing business applications to potentially harm and to administrate and allocate company tools and specific user roles to users.
Cincopa’s SSO (SAML 2.0) feature allows you to manage both user-creation and the sign-in process through your existing Identity Provider tool (IdP) such as Azure AD, ADFS, Okta, Jumpcloud, SalesForce SSO, OneLogin and any Saml 2.0 supporting IDP.
Benefits of SSO
SSO stands for Single Sign-On, which means a user can just log in to one platform and using that platform the user will be able to login to multiple applications without having to log in to each application individually.
This means users do not have to remember the login credentials for all the application which instead will be managed by the SSO Provider/Identity Provider.
The SSO Provider/Identity Provider authenticates the user for all the applications the user has been given permission rights to and eliminates the need for future password prompts for individual applications during the same session.
Let’s look into some of the key benefits of using SSO for your organization:
Ease of Access:
It allows the end-users to remember and manage fewer passwords and usernames for each application.
Time Management:
Saves time, as the end-user does not have to find and re-enter passwords for each individual application.
Phishing:
Reduces the chance of phishing attacks by hackers around the world.
Productivity:
IT Helpdesk receives fewer tickets on password issues, thus, improving productivity.
User Access Reports:
As the users access all the applications through one platform, it becomes easier to generate detailed user access reporting.
What is SAML
Cincopa uses SAML for its SSO implementation.
SAML stands for Security Assertion Markup Language which is an XML-based method for exchanging user security information between a SAML identity provider and a SAML service provider.
SAML 2.0 is a set of open standards which is specifically designed for SSO. It is used in exchanging authentication and authorization data an identity provider and a service provider.
SAML assumes that the end-user has enrolled with at least one identity provider. This identity provider is expected to provide local authentication services to the end-user.
SAML has been a de facto standard protocol for identity management and is now supported by most of the biggest actors in the computer industry.
Identity Provider:
An Identity Provider is a platform that stores user identity information. An identity provider performs the authentication that the end-user is who they say they are and sends that data to the service provider along with the user’s access rights for the service.
So the user will log in to the Identity Providers Platform and then the Identity Provider will give the user access to use the Service Providers without having to log in again.
Service Provider:
A Service Provider is an application that is tied up with the Identity Provider to authenticate the end-user to their platform.
A service provider needs authentication from the identity provider to grant authorization to the user.
Popular SSO Solution Vendors
Cincopa as a service provider allows its users to login using the best SSO solutions in the industry. Cincopa uses Okta, Jumpcloud, and AuthO as their trusted SSO solutions.
You can read about our integrations with them here:
To learn about our integration with Okta
To learn about our integration with JumpCloud