As internet becomes more and more common in the world, services are being introduced that make internet users’ experience better. You might think that internet is everywhere but there are still billions of people with no internet access. Now, as you use the internet you are compelled to make user accounts on various online website. Take the example of various social networking websites you have the login names and passwords for such as Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. Logging into these services one by one every day could be quite annoying and hassling for internet users.
In the same way, employees at some companies have to login to many different applications on a daily basis. Accessing so many applications can be quite a challenge for them. First, they have to remember so many passwords. Secondly, they have to spend quite some time typing in those passwords. If you are someone who has to type passwords a lot daily, you must know the exhaustion that comes with typing them over and over. That’s where SSO comes in. SSO stands for single sign on where a single login allows a user to access various applications.
It has to be understood here that you don’t have to have the same password for all the applications. With SSO service you set just one set of credentials that work for logging into all applications. You don’t have to keep on typing the same password over and over. Just enter one password and all the applications will be accessible to you. There are different methods used for achieving a single-sign on. There is the SAML which is based on the XML standards. Secondly, there is Kerberos – a setup based on this uses the TGT (ticket granting ticket) method for allowing access to various applications.
At an enterprise level, the single sign on service works on LAN. The enterprise might have many different applications that are accessed by its users on a daily basis. With only a set of signing in credentials, the user is able to access all the applications on that LAN. This greatly improves the productivity of the workers as they don’t have to enter passwords over and over. Furthermore, when a sign on system is created, it works for all types of applications. This allows users to save even more time whether they are accessing local applications or remote ones.
The latest entry into this type of setup is the cloud SSO. Now, you can access applications in the cloud with just password. Once again, you just enter one password and all your applications will be accessible. It does not even matter if the applications are related to the same network or not. They could be completely different applications but still requiring the same login credentials. For example, you have access to a portal and through this portal you can access Google+, Facebook, Twitter and even the applications that are specifically designed and working for your enterprise.
Such a service is great for keeping away the dangers of phishing scam where you are made to sign into a disguised service. You think you are logging into your daily used application but there is an unauthorized party behind that page stealing your information. The biggest benefit of using single sign on service is that it allows companies to keep track of their customers. With one single ID and password they can recognize their customers, their presence and the services they are using. This allows you to know your customers even better and have information about their latest activities at hand to market them more appropriately.
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