Single Sign-On
Also known as: SSO
Single Sign-On (SSO) lets one login give a user access to several different systems without having to sign in again for each one.
Single Sign-On (SSO) solves an everyday problem: instead of maintaining a separate account and password for every application, a user signs in once with a central identity provider. That provider then confirms to other connected systems who is logging in, so no further credentials need to be entered.
In practice, an employee signs in once in the morning, say on their PC or through a login portal, and from then on has access to email, internal applications and connected cloud services without entering credentials again. Behind the scenes, this usually runs on a protocol such as SAML or OpenID Connect, which confirms the login between systems.
The advantage and the risk sit close together: fewer passwords for employees to remember or reuse, and one central place where access can be cut off immediately when someone leaves. At the same time, whoever compromises the central account gets access to every connected system at once, not just one.
What it means in practice
For businesses running several cloud services, SSO noticeably cuts the number of passwords employees have to manage, but it should always be paired with extra protection for the central account, such as a second factor at login. Without that, the convenience quickly becomes a single critical point of attack. NDVDL deploys SSO accordingly in systems integration projects for businesses in Vienna, Lower Austria and Slovakia.
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