Question 1

What are Single Sign-On (SSO) Solutions?

Accepted Answer

Single sign-on (SSO) solutions are user authentication solution that helps companies secure access to business applications and assets. It does so while also providing end users with a convenient, easy-to-use portal that requires them only to sign in and authenticate once to access multiple corporate applications and resources.  
 SSO solutions share authentication sessions between a trusted identity provider, which manages digital identities and applications. In practice, commonly, an identity provider requires the user to log in and authenticate; the identity provider then shares this authentication session with other applications by passing digitally signed tokens for the receiving application to verify that it is coming from a trusted provider before granting the user with access to the application. If the user identity token is accepted, the user is automatically granted access to the application. 
 Companies use SSO software mainly to improve security and enhance the end-user sign-on experience, whether that be internal employees, end customers, or corporate business partners. SSO solutions also centralizes user access management, thus reducing the security management burden on administrators. Using an SSO solution, IT administrators can reduce or eliminate common time-consuming tasks like password resets. SSO products contain features that benefit both end users and administrators. For end users, this includes an easy-to-use user portal, intuitive authentication, and often a mobile application. For administrators, these solutions often include an identity directory or directory integrations, multiple multi-factor authentication (MFA) methods, audit features, and prebuilt application integrations.  
 What Does SSO Stand For? 
 SSO most commonly stands for single sign-on. The acronym SSO is less frequently used to describe same sign-on, which is different from single sign-on; same sign-on does not rely on trusted tokens, but rather credential sharing. Rarely, the acronym SSO is used to describe single sign-out. 
 Other common acronyms people may encounter regarding SSO products include: 
 FIM: federated identity management, of which SSO is a part 
 IAM: identity and access management 
 IdP: identity provider 
 JWT: JSON Web Token, a protocol commonly used in business-to-consumer (B2C) SSO applications 
 LDAP: lightweight directory access protocol, an open protocol used for directory services authentication 
 MFA: multi-factor authentication 
 OIDC: OpenID Connect, an authentication protocol 
 OAuth: an open standard authentication protocol 
 SAML: Security Assertion Markup Language, an open standard used for SSO solutions 
 
What Types of Single Sign-On (SSO) Solutions Exist?
 
 Business to employee (B2E) 
 Companies use B2E SSO solutions to securely manage their employees’ access to corporate accounts, provide an easy-to-use user experience, and reduce user need for IT administrators services. 
 Business to business (B2B) 
 Companies use B2B SSO solutions to enable their business partners and corporate customers to best utilize the company’s services, using the partner or corporate customer’s preferred identity providers. 
 Business to consumer (B2C) or customer identity and access management (CIAM) 
 In B2C or CIAM use cases, customers are able to sign into other accounts and connect them to the business’ app to provide an SSO experience. Most commonly, customers authenticate using social media identity providers like Facebook or Google enabling them access to connected accounts.

Question 2

What are the Common Features of Single Sign-On (SSO) Solutions?

Accepted Answer

The following are some core features within SSO solutions that can help users and administrators. 
 User portal: User portals provide an intuitive, easy-to-use end-user interface. 
 Mobile app: Many SSO solutions offer a mobile app for end users to both authenticate and access the SSO solution from their mobile devices. 
 MFA methods: Most SSO providers offer multiple authentication methods to end users, from software or hardware token-based authentication, to mobile push, passwordless authentication, biometric authentication, or one-time passcodes (OTPs).  
 Adaptive or contextual access: Some SSO software offers advanced authentication tools, such as adaptive or contextual access. Using machine learning to understand a user’s contextual use of the SSO product, such as location, IP address, time, and other real-time factors to create a user baseline profile. This profile is then used to determine anomalous access activity to prevent access when risk is deemed too high. 
 Directory or integration: To assist with user provisioning and management, SSO solutions either integrate with standard directories, such as Microsoft Active Directory, LDAP-based directories, or Google Cloud Directory or offer their own cloud directories built into the SSO software. 
 Prebuilt integration application catalog: SSO solutions commonly provide prebuilt integrations to widely used SaaS applications, which are available on an application catalog. 
 Role management: SSO solutions assist administrators with user provisioning and assigning permissions based on user role for access control. 
 Audit features: Audit features provide administrators audit logs to monitor user access.

Question 3

What are the Benefits of Single Sign-On (SSO) Solutions?

Accepted Answer

Increases security: The main benefit of using an SSO solution is for securing user access to company applications and other resources through user authentication. 
 Reduces password authentication risk: Since users must only sign in and authenticate once to access multiple applications, SSO solutions reduce the risks associated with poor password management and using only a single factor for authentication. 
 Saves users time and frustration: SSO solutions reduce the number of logins end users such as employees or customers must remember and SSO solutions reduce user frustration when switching between multiple applications once authenticated. 
 Saves administrators time and money: Users can access their accounts in one centralized location, reducing the number of calls to administrators for password resets, saving time and, therefore money on labor costs. 
 Seamless experience across assets: SSO solutions reduce login friction for end users once authenticated and give them access to multiple accounts.  
 Centralizes consumer profiles: SSO software consolidates end-user experiences in one tool to provide a centralized view of end-user or customer data.

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