Single sign-on (SSO) has transitioned from a niche concept to a fundamental capability expected in the modern workplace. With the average employee relying on dozens of distinct web apps and business services to complete their daily responsibilities, the need for streamlined access becomes imperative.
Recent research illustrates the exploding adoption of single sign-on:
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80% of IT professionals consider SSO capabilities very important or extremely important for their organization according to a recent Thales access management survey.
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The SSO market has expanded at over 24% CAGR since 2017, accelerated especially by remote work trends. By 2027 cumulative annual growth is forecasted to near $22 billion USD according to Emergen Research.
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The industries driving most SSO usage are IT/technology, BFSI, healthcare, retail and government – sectors managing sensitive data at scale while operating complex application environments.
But what exactly is SSO and why does it warrant so much corporate investment? Let‘s explore what‘s driving this identity management evolution and how SSO aims to securely streamline your digital experience both within and between organizations.
Defining Single Sign-On and How it Works
Single sign-on refers to an authentication scheme that allows users to access multiple applications and services using one set of login credentials. So whether heading to your inbox, joining a video call or accessing internal HR tools, you avoid the drudgery of entering unique passwords at each turn.
The two core components that enable frictionless SSO experiences are:
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Identity Provider (IdP): The centralized service that manages user identities/access, handles sign-on requests and facilitates authentication.
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Service Provider (SP): The applications and services that users are accessing. Service providers connect back to the IdP to validate a user’s identity and permissions.
Here‘s how the SSO flow works in practice:
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Alex needs to access his company‘s new Marketing CRM, which requires authentication via their single sign-on portal.
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The Marketing CRM acts as the Service Provider (SP) and redirects Alex‘s login request back to his company’s central IdP.
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Alex enters his username and password through the IdP interface to authenticate.
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Upon verifying Alex‘s credentials match the user identity in its database, the IdP system generates and returns a token containing Alex‘s user profile to the Marketing CRM.
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The CRM inspects the SSO token and automatically signs Alex into his user profile, allowing access without forcing re-authentication!
Now whenever Alex attempts to access other services integrated with that company’s SSO portal, his active session means he won‘t encounter additional login screens. This capability that avoids prompting re-entry of passwords is what delivers that “single sign-on” user experience.
Of course technical details like determining the length of SSO sessions or handling logouts gets more complex. But at its core SSO aims to mitigate our password fatigue in an app happy world.
Speaking of apps…while SSO helps employees access internal tools, it also facilitates seamless business partnerships externally.
Federated identity management provides the bridge that connects companies to safely access and interface with peer services and cloud applications. This inter-organization trust allows partner ecosystems to grant verified identities access to tools across security domains.
The common standards we keep mentioning – SAML, OAuth and OpenID Connect – provide the technical means to make this digital trust possible on an internet scale.
Now that you grasp the SSO concept, let’s explore why so many organizations invest heavily to deliver seamless intra- and inter-business app experiences.
Key Advantages Driving Single Sign-On Adoption
The productivity and security enhancements inherent to unified access management have made SSO solutions extremely desirable. Based on user and IT impact, the top benefits include:
Enhanced Employee Digital Experience
Employees reap immediate quality-of-life improvements from SSO systems. No more monotonously entering dozens of unique account credentials daily! Logging in once saves substantial time whenever switching between apps and devices. Given users juggle an average of 80+ accounts, efficiency adds up fast.
With a unified login, the friction of security disappears into the background. And revoking access when employees switch roles or leave companies also simplifies with centralized controls.
Tighter Application Security
Counterintuitively, SSO also enhances application security substantially. According to Verizon‘s 2020 Data Breach report, over 80% of hacking breaches leverage stolen or brute-forced credentials. SSO pulls credentials out of individual apps to limit this key attack vector.
With IdPs managing access, IT can enforce enterprise password policies encompassing complexity, resets and multi-factor authentication uniformly. Revoking access upon suspicious activity containing the threat proves much easier at scale through the centralized control plane.
Precise session management controls also reduce risk of hijacking or manipulating identities between apps. Ultimately SSO provides the tools to fortify your most vulnerable threat element – user passwords and identities.
Greater IT Efficiency
With an SSO system handling access protocols, IT avoids manually managing countless user accounts distributed across applications. Identity lifecycle tasks like user provisioning & decommissioning simplify dramatically. Trouble tickets for password resets or account lockouts plummet, saving over 20 hours per week for the average IT team.
Instead personnel can devote more strategic resources towards value-driving initiatives, innovating enhanced security capabilities aligned to business requirements. The cumulative lift in IT productivity means faster application development plus proactive threat response capabilities.
Facilitates Regulatory Compliance
For virtually any modern company, compliance with regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS looms large. Each imposes strict standards governing application access controls, audit logging and general user data safeguards.
An SSO system knocks out many compliance prerequisites in one stroke – strong access controls, enhanced logging/visibility and security awareness reinforcement. Automating large portions of identity and credential management lift a heavy burden for struggling compliance teams.
According to Tripwire’s recent survey, 34% of organizations accelerated SSO adoption just to satisfy compliance controls and avoid financial penalties.
With the employee and business impact understood, what trade-offs come with utilizing single sign-on…
Potential Weak Spots and SSO Considerations
As with most services centralizing critical functions, SSO introduces potential risk considerations:
Account Security Interdependence
Linking access for apps via one credential now collectively exposes them under a single point of failure. Compromising a user’s central SSO login credentials jeopardizes all connected systems simultaneously. Organizations must enact other safeguards like expansive monitoring, enhanced password policies and adaptive multi-factor authentication to mitigate risk.
Additionally, flawed SSO application integration exposes vulnerabilities like account hijacking or utilizing leaked tokens permitting unauthorized access. IT and app owners must vet implementations thoroughly – insecure authentication or session management code defeats many security advantages of SSO platforms.
Administrative Overhead Scales Complexity
A full-fledged SSO capability requires extensive resources to integrate apps, manage servers, apply security updates and ensure high availability at all times. For global enterprises supporting millions of authentications this overhead proves manageable. Smaller firms may lack specialized DevOps engineers needed to wrangle all the infrastructure complexity and customization possibilities.
Provisioning SSO through cloud SaaS platforms like Okta relieves infrastructure maintenance but still demands some initial integration efforts. Companies also risk vendor platform lock-in once committing to a solution long term.
Legacy Application Compatibility Hurdles
Though SSO streamlines greenfield development providing native coding libraries, adding SSO functionality to legacy apps presents more obstacles. Many legacy apps and on-prem services built before Web 2.0 eras lack modern identity protocols like OAuth or SAML. Rigging SSO support often requires security teams updating deprecated code vulnerable to introducing new flaws.
IT leaders must balance ease-of-use with tightening legacy app risks on a case-by-case basis. Zero trust network models help isolate and limit exposure for legacy tools while funneling access through SSO gates.
Now that we’ve weighed the pros and cons, what’s the best way to approach an SSO deployment?
Expert Single Sign-On Implementation Guide
If evaluating SSO capabilities for your workplace, keep these tips and considerations in mind:
Determine Use Cases First – Will SSO manage internal tools, external APIs or customer identity? These use cases help pinpoint the appropriate protocols and features required. You likely need multiple standards (i.e OpenID Connect & SAML) to serve broad needs.
Architect With Scale in Mind – Adopt decentralized or hybrid designs separating components for better resilience and multi-domain support. On-prem gateway brokers help connect legacy systems while cloud IdPs handle modern app authentication.
Enhance Legacy App Integration Over Time – Prioritize modern cloud apps first for the most seamless integrations, while slowly onboarding legacy systems pending risk assessments. Utilize network segmentation and session restrictions (expiration, IP enforcement) on legacy tools to manage risk exposure during transition periods.
Mandate Multi-factor Authentication – Require strong secondary authentication factors across all users for enhanced account protection. SMS one-time passwords offer the minimum hardening while mobile authenticator apps or hardware tokens prove even more resilient to phishing attacks.
Provide User SSO Education – Train employees on the expanded account risks associated with SSO linked tools. Set clear expectations for responsibilities around properly securing devices, reporting suspicious activities and requiring immediate change of compromised credentials.
Continuously Monitor Authentication Traffic – Leverage machine learning capabilities to spot anomalies in SSO account usage patterns and mitigate breaches. Analyze logs for unusual geolocation, timing or access requests indicating threats. Enact controls like temporary access freezes while investigating events.
The playbook above distills collective lessons learned regarding SSO deployments. Proceed incrementally and address barriers as they arise. In due course employees will celebrate unified access to apps while security, IT and compliance teams toast the operational efficiencies.
Now that you have a solid understanding of SSO…let‘s peek into the future.
The Road Ahead: Innovations Shake Up Access Management
Multiple technological shifts promise to further evolve identity and access management:
Passwordless Future – Innovative authentication standards like FIDO2/WebAuthn and Apple Face ID that eliminate dependency on fallible passwords. As biometrics and device-based credentials permeate, passwordless access will expand.
Social Login Dominance – Users increasingly prefer federated login based on existing social media or email provider identities. Standards like OpenID Connect Build on mature OAuth frameworks to streamline integration.
Decentralized Identity – Blockchain and distributed ledger solutions allow portable digital identity ownership by users themselves vs centralized providers. This enables true lifetime user-managed identity lifecycles.
Just-In-Time Elevated Access – Enterprise privileges granted on temporary limited basis using privileged access management tools, then automatically revoked after workflow completion. Reduces standing privileged credentials vulnerable to misuse.
As standards and adoption for these technologies mature in coming years, we inch closer to vision of app access “easy as breathing, secure as Fort Knox”…or so goes the maxim! In the interim securing access through SSO proves wise.
So in summary, is SSO right for my company? If key aspects resonate like smoothing IT overhead, unifying access controls or demonstrating compliance credibility, then absolutely! You join 85% of businesses eyeing single sign-on to tame application chaos for personnel and partners alike.
Reach out anytime if you have SSO questions while exploring modern identity management capabilities. Just remember no silver bullet solves all security and usability needs. As adopting SSO, take measured steps so convenience or control never fully dominate at the expense of the other. Happy authenticating!
