What Is Single Sign-On? A Quick Guide

 Single sign-on (SSO) is an excellent technology to enable secure access to applications and systems for your users and employees.

Instead of using plenty of passwords, usernames, and other credentials, you can enable this system to make things easier for users.

SSO will not only help reduce hassles for users but also offers an effortless user experience that they are going to appreciate. And in turn, you can build brand loyalty, higher employee productivity, and business efficiencies. These are a few things that every business would love to have.

But what is SSO all about?

And how can it help your business?

Let’s find the answer to these questions

What Is Single Sign-On?

Single sign-on (SSO) is a modern authentication system that enables a user to enter their login details like a username and password for a single time to access all the related but different software systems or applications.

This system eliminates the need for re-entering the login credentials whenever they want to access applications. It saves the users from unnecessary hassles or reduced productivity. Instead of authenticating for different systems each time, they can just log in once and access different systems to complete their responsibilities with ease.

SSO is a part of identity and access management (IAM) that manages user identities and how they access systems, ensuring the right users have the right access permissions. The counterpart of SSO is single sign-off (SLO), where you can sign out once to terminate your access to different systems.

Example: An excellent example of SSO is Google G-Suite. You can log in to your Gmail account once and automatically access other Google products like Google Sheets or Doc. SSO is not only beneficial for end-users but also for businesses to ease the login process for their employees.

How Does It Work?

Single sign-on is implemented through a solution. Users need to provide their login credentials like user ID and password to the SSO solution without directly logging in to an app or site. Next, the SSO solution checks the credentials with the organization’s identity provider or authentication server.

When a user log-ins to the SSO solution, it generates an authentication token that checks the user’s verification status. This token is digital information that’s stored within the servers of the SSO solution or in the user’s web browser. It’s like an ID card given temporarily to the user.

So, when the user tries accessing an app, it will confirm verification with the SSO service to grant permission. And if a user is not signed-in with the SSO solution, they will get a prompt to do so.

Furthermore, the SSO solution won’t necessarily remember the user because it doesn’t store the user identities. It just matches user credentials against the identity service. Now, an identity service stores and manages all the user identities of individuals or an organization’s employees for an application. Some of the common identity service providers are G-Suite, Azure, Microsoft, etc.

Conclusion

Put an end to using multiple passwords and giving yourself the pain of remembering all of them correctly. Use an efficient and secure SSO solution to access all your systems and applications with just a single password. It will enable a smooth user experience while increasing their productivity and saving your passwords from attacks.