Federated Identity and you

Imagine this. You work for a modern, large corporation, called Mycorp. There is a corporate intranet that provides access to corporate data, news, information and a range of outsourced services. These outsourced services could include business travel bookings, pension management,
benefits management, company car management, human resources and other common functions.

Now take a moment to think about the number of usernames and passwords that you would have in this environment. Think about the number of times that you need to enter a separate username and password to gain access to the internal and external resources that you need to do your job. Hmm; I’m thinking about handing in my notice at MyCorp already and I have only worked there for thirty seconds.

Let’s look at a typical action like booking company travel to an overseas destination. First, you log into the operating system on your laptop or desktop computer. Then you log into the company portal application with another password, which allows you to access the travel portal. The travel portal is outsourced and requires a different username and password, which you provide. You then need to check the company travel insurance policy is up to date, so you need to visit the current insurance providers portal and you guessed it, another username and password. Hang on, its been a while since you logged on to this portal, you have forgotten your password, lets hope their helpdesk doesn’t keep you on hold too long, you still have that company finance report to finish by lunch time. Recognise the scenario? Me too.