{"id":4237,"date":"2024-05-07T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jumpcloud.com\/blog\/?p=4237"},"modified":"2024-05-10T12:00:05","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T16:00:05","slug":"identity-provider-idp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jumpcloud.com\/blog\/identity-provider-idp","title":{"rendered":"What’s an Identity Provider (IdP)?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You could have the strongest firewalls, encryption, anti-malware, vulnerability scanners, and risk management tools in the world and still leave one critical gap in your cybersecurity infrastructure<\/a> \u2014 insider threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And most of those threats come from poor identity management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what, exactly, is good<\/em> identity management? How do you pick the right identity provider for your organization?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this post, we\u2019ll review what identity providers are, their crucial role in every IT department\u2019s protocol, and how to achieve comprehensive wrap-around security and compliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is an Identity?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In IT terms, a digital identity represents a user; more importantly, it represents what<\/em> systems, applications, files, and servers that user has access to and the level<\/em> of access they have. As you can imagine, an employee on the marketing team will have a very different set of permissions than someone on the engineering team, who will have a very different set of permissions than someone working in HR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Setting and updating these identities over time is critical. Companies swap applications in and out. Employees come and go. And new compliance regulations impact who gets access to what and when. Accurate and organized identity management<\/a> is key to keeping an organization\u2019s data safe and secure throughout these changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is an Identity Provider?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The identity and access<\/a> control systems within an organization span a number of different resources \u2014 but it all starts with the directory service, often referred to as the \u201cidentity provider.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An identity provider, otherwise known as an IdP, stores and manages the identities employees (and systems) use to log in to their devices, applications, files, servers, and any other software or hardware they need to do their jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think of it as the brain of any identity and user management<\/a> infrastructure. It houses hundreds to thousands of user records. And those user records contain credentials. Whenever users try to access an IT resource, that resource will double-check with the brain \u2014 the IdP \u2014 first, to make sure that a user is allowed to access that resource and to what degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Brief History of IdPs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally, on-premise solutions like OpenLDAP and Microsoft Active Directory<\/a> (AD) served as core IdPs, most often referred to as \u201cuser directories.\u201d The communication between these IdPs and service providers took place over just one protocol: LDAP<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More technical infrastructure based on Linux would connect to OpenLDAP, while Microsoft Windows-based devices and applications would connect to AD. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These paradigms worked reasonably well \u2014 until the rise of cloud infrastructure. Web apps, cloud-based servers, and other modern IT resources struggled to connect to OpenLDAP and AD. They leveraged different protocols, and networking became an issue. Over the past few years, MacOS systems have become increasingly popular, putting additional pressure on legacy directories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully, a solution was made for the cloud era: Single Sign-On, or SSO<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IdPs and Single Sign-On (SSO)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If the IdP is the brain of identity management, Single Sign-On (SSO)<\/a> is its secure courier, carrying messages from users to the brain and from the brain to various service providers. To transfer authentication and authorization information between the IdP and web-based applications, SSO providers use a standard protocol like SAML.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The flow looks something like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. A user signs into an SSO platform with their username and password.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. The SSO platform sends that information to the IdP.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. The IdP confirms:\n
      \n
    1. The user\u2019s set of login credentials.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. The user\u2019s digital identity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. The apps, servers, files, and networks that the user has access to.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    4. The user\u2019s permissions within each of those resources.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    5. The SSO passes this information to each application the user attempts to open, authenticating the user and authorizing the proper access.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Pretty slick, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      But there\u2019s an even simpler way to maintain identity integrity: a tool with a built-in user directory and<\/em> built-in SSO. JumpCloud<\/a>, for example, is a cloud-based identity provider<\/a> and an SSO platform, using core protocols like LDAP, SAML, RADIUS, SSH, and REST to connect users to resources on-premises or in the cloud, regardless of the device they\u2019re using.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      An all-in-one identity solution like JumpCloud has myriad benefits \u2014 for IT teams, users, and the enterprises they work for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Advantages of Modern Identity Management for Users and Enterprises<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      For users, a platform like JumpCloud:<\/p>\n\n\n\n