SSO to external/SaaS Applications

While federated identity was evolving as an essential Internet security technology, on-demand Software-as-a-Service applications were also on the rise.

Given the fundamental ability of Internet SSO and federated identity to support scenarios where users are in one place and their applications are in another, it only makes sense that these two trends would converge - and they have.

SSO to SaaS has now emerged as the major use case for Internet SSO. Virtually every major SaaS provider, including those shown here, now support Internet SSO. While some started by offering a proprietary SSO mechanism, the industry trend is moving toward support of the SAML 2 standard for implementing SSO.

Enterprise to external Service Provider SSO via PingFederate.

In this use case, the enterprise uses PingFederate to connect to one or more service providers such as a Software as a Service (SaaS) provider or Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) suppliers that provide applications for employee use. PingConnect can also support this use case for enterprises who prefer a hosted solution.

With PingFederate and PingConnect, the enterprise can provide SSO access to external applications from multiple devices including Web browsers, mobile devices and rich clients such as Microsoft Outlook. Employees benefit from SSO access whether they are in the office or on the road.