Ping ID: Cloud Identity Connectors
December 5, 2011
One of the most powerful areas for Cloud Computing is where you can harness key technologies like Identity, cost effectively and in a manner that provides real benefits quickly.
For example if you are the HR Manager for an organization then social networks like Linkedin are a great source of talent, so advertising there may be one step you take.
If you want to increase the response rates you enjoy from these adverts one technology you can use is ‘Cloud Logins’. This means that your HR application, where you capture the candidate’s resume, can be connected to Linkedin so that they don’t to repeat the sign-on process to your site too when they make the application…
Removing this one tiny but annoying hassle can therefore greatly improve responsiveness and is a great feature to utilize when starting these campaigns.
These are one example of ‘IDaaS’ – Identity-as-a-Service, where processes like username and password authentication are used just once, and then the credentials from them are shared with other applications. Naturally the web 2.0 world has first pioneered this slick feature, and an example of the types of benefit it enables is this ‘single sign-on to job application’ process above.
Ping Identity describes these as ‘Cloud Identity Connectors‘, which they describe as “Cloud Identity Connectors allow cloud identity providers such as Facebook, Yahoo!, Google and Salesforce to authenticate and connect employees, partners and customers to cloud-based applications.”
Their solution caters both for consumers, signing in via Facebook or Linkedin, as well as business users, who instead sign in via Salesforce.com:
“The Salesforce Cloud Identity Connector Enables Salesforce CRM to act as an Identity Provider or cloud-based authentication source for partner facing applications. In addition, customer- and partner-facing portals utilizing Salesforce can act as an Identity Provider to offer seamless access to internal applications or third party services.”