Till a few years back, passwords were considered as the best tool to prevent hacking. They secured our accounts and hence we were glad to use them. Eventually, with time, we began to use multiple discrete accounts. And so, remembering all the passwords turned out to be a cumbersome task. Moreover, the idea of losing them became our nightmare.
Note: – An English research team found out that an average person nearly deals with more than 27 separate logins in general.
Moreover, studies show that 3 out of 4 customers lose track of their passwords. Obviously, this gave rise to dire need for a technology which could omit or at least decrease the number of passwords in one’s life. Hence, Federation and Single Sign On (SSO) came into existence.
Image source: lynda.com
Have you ever used SSO? We bet you have! It’s the technique used in your Google account login process. It’s quite fun being able to use such an awesome technique that eliminates the password fatigue syndrome. For those who don’t know, Password Fatigue is a state experienced by people who are forced to remember too many passwords to login to different services and applications.
Federation also simplifies the process of login and is often confused with SSO. Organizations cannot decide among the two techniques unless the right knowledge is imparted. Federation doesn’t work like SSO and with proper understanding about its applications, you can also decide which technique to opt for. Therefore, in this article, we are going to discuss how Federation and SSO are different from each other.
Note: – Both concepts are different and hence have different applications. Read On!
Simply put together, Federation exists between different enterprises whereas SSO exists within an organization.
Organizations that are linked with each other use Federation for providing authentication to their common user base on the basis of mutual trust. An organization plays the role of an identity provider and others are considered as receivers that provide access to the users.
On the contrary, SSO works within an organization, where it handles or shares sessions of multiple websites (different services) of a single organization. Google is a world-class example for SSO implementation in organizations. Now talking about Federation, it removes the need for multiple ID and password combinations for the website. It creates a group of companies that authenticate and authorize users with a single user ID-password combination or other similar methods (in case of two-factor authentication).
In SSO, there are different types of SSO according to the application area. A web SSO offers different services to users with single ID-password combination. An enterprise SSO can be applied inside the organization, where employees are the users. They can avail different organizational services through the SSO login process.
Other than the above described differences, both Single Sign On and Federation simplify login process. We hope that the article helps you rethink about your choice. Analyze your business needs and choose a product. SSO and Federation are like two different techniques fighting to eliminate complexity in the login process. Again, if you want a technique for internal transactions, it’s highly recommended to use a blend of mobile SSO and web SSO as per new age standards.
Subscribe Now & Never Miss The Latest Tech Updates!