Simple single sign-on

Single sign-on applications and services have been a hot topic over in our Identity Management newsletter for the best part of a year or two. But until now, few, if any, SSO solutions leveraged the many facets of Active Directory in a mostly Windows network.

Instead, vendors went for wider deployment by either tying to multi-platform directory services or by using lowest-common-denominator standards, such as Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. They work, sure, but something that used the native Microsoft Windows API might work better for you.

Now there is a service that leverages your investment in Windows platforms to provide SSO for your users. Version3 (I'd like to hear the story of how its name came about) has just released its Simple Sign-On Access Management Application, an SSO solution for Windows servers, networks and applications.

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Single sign-on applications and services have been a hot topic over in our Identity Management newsletter for the best part of a year or two. But until now, few, if any, SSO solutions leveraged the many facets of Active Directory in a mostly Windows network.

Instead, vendors went for wider deployment by either tying to multi-platform directory services or by using lowest-common-denominator standards, such as Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. They work, sure, but something that used the native Microsoft Windows API might work better for you.

Now there is a service that leverages your investment in Windows platforms to provide SSO for your users. Version3 (I'd like to hear the story of how its name came about) has just released its Simple Sign-On Access Management Application, an SSO solution for Windows servers, networks and applications.

Version3 Simple Sign-On provides the best of both worlds in enterprise and client side SSO. By securing the user's credentials within Microsoft's Active Directory and using an authenticated client side interface, Version3 Simple Sign-On provides an easy to implement solution for Windows and Web SSO projects.

Version3's product uses the same administration tools as Active Directory, Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM), Microsoft Identity Integration Server and the Windows Server System (Content Management Server, Exchange, etc.). You only need to learn to navigate one console, and you're already familiar with it.

The service's provisioning interface provides for on-demand and batch mode provisioning and deprovisioning of defined applications. Users can be, at your option, provisioned automatically and their user credentials stored in Microsoft Active Directory for automatic logons. When coupled with Microsoft Identity Integration Server, Version3 Simple Sign-On can help you manage the business processes that drive application and resource provisioning.

Because it is fully integrated into Microsoft's Active Directory, Version3 Simple Sign-On inherits all the delegated administration features of Active Directory. The user administration console becomes an extension of the Active Directory console and can be securely delegated so that administrators would have the right to set and change user credentials.

With just a little scripting work, the same interface used for delegated administration is available in a self-service mode that permits users to securely reset their own application credentials without help desk intervention. That's a time and money-saver.

Before I recommend that you take a look at a product, I always check the hardware and software requirements to see if there are any limitations on its usefulness. I've never seen a less limited requirements list than Version3's which reads: "A healthy Active Directory environment is all you need." If only every useful service was that simple, but maybe that's how Simple Sign-On got its name.

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