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People who have been in the enterprise industry have probably heard of the term “single sign-on” once or twice. But if you haven’t, it’s long overdue that you take a look at SSO for the enterprise, what it is and what it can do for your company. The benefits are numerous, and the way it works is actually pretty simple, so let’s go over both and see why it’s something you should be considering.
What is SSO, How Does it Work?
At its core, SSO is fairly simple – it’s used to replace the use of multiple credentials within the same environment with a single, streamlined set that you can use in multiple situations. While it’s used in multiple ways, it always has the same goal – provide a better user experience, give a boost in security, and make things more convenient for both the users and the enterprise.
The basis of everything that revolves around SSO is trust. It might sound simple, but it’s actually all that’s required for things to work well. There should be trust between the service provider, which is actually the enterprise and its application or website, and the identity provider, which is the SSO solution. It’s not just trust – there’s a secure certificate in place to make sure everything goes smoothly, but that’s how things work in the big picture. Let’s consider some details, though.
The first step is the user accessing the service provider, which is the enterprise’s application or website. Then, you have the application or website sending the information that the user input, to the single sign-on service. The SSO service has the role of an identity provider, and the process is known as token-based authentication.
The next step is the SSO checking whether the user that’s trying to access the app or website has been authenticated previously. And here’s where the beauty of SSO lies – said user doesn’t have to be authenticated for the specific app, just for an app within the ecosystem of the enterprise. If they have been authenticated previously, the authentication is considered successful, and a token with the approval is sent back to the service provider.
When the service provider receives confirmation of a successful authentication, the user gets access.
If this was a regular situation, the user would have to remember a different set of credentials for each app within the ecosystem, but with SSO all it takes is the trust and relationship between it, and the app or website the user is trying to visit. It’s really as simple as that.
Why You Should Consider It for Your Enterprise
Now that you know what SSO is and how it works, you should already have a good idea of why you should be implementing it. But if you don’t, here are some of the less obvious benefits of SSO that should convince you.
First of all, you can’t not talk about security. Of course, there will be a lot of people that claim that using the same credentials for multiple places isn’t a good idea. And to some extent, they might be right, but there’s one often overlooked factor here. With multiple passwords, people make them intentionally easier so they don’t forget them. However, with a single password, you’ll be inclined to put in a whole phrase, lowercase and uppercase characters, symbols, the whole nine yards. You know how difficult that’s going to be to guess or break through? Exactly.
In addition to this, there’s also an overlooked boost in productivity. This might come as a surprise unless you’re working as part of the tech support team in your enterprise, but one of the most common reasons people even contact tech support is to ask them to reset a password. Not only does guessing a password waste the employees’ time, but the reset wastes your support team’s time, too.
And last but not least there’s going to be a small boost in adoption rates. We’re talking about dealing with situations where you just want to use an app so badly, because it makes things a lot easier for the enterprise, but it’s too difficult to sign everyone up for, and you give up on it. And if it’s an app that increases productivity or cuts down the time for some of the processes you do within the enterprise, you’re taking a hit on your ROI.
At the end of the day, implementing a single sign-on solution shouldn’t be something you’re debating, same as stable internet and back up to avoid internet outages. You should debate when to take a few hours and deal with it, because it’s going to bring some crucial benefits for your enterprise, and there is no reason whatsoever not to go for it. You’re looking at a streamlined, simplified experience for everyone, and it’s a win-win situation.
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Image sources: Pixabay.com and Unsplash.com
