--- title: "Cloud identity: SSO, provisioning and security" description: "You have no idea what the user's cloud identity is: how they access it, what their account is, or if they should have access to it." image: https://blog.empowerid.com/hs-fs/file-18491448-jpg/images/cloud_identity_and_security.jpg --- [![empowerID-logo](https://blog.empowerid.com/hubfs/empowerID-logo.svg "empowerID-logo")](http://www.empowerid.com) **![phone](https://blog.empowerid.com/hubfs/images/phone.svg)   1-877-996-4276   **or**  +1 (614) 652-6825** [![Share on facebook](https://7528309.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hub/7528309/hubfs/raw_assets/public/mV0_d-web-default-modules_hubspot/img/facebook-color.png?width=24&name=facebook-color.png) ](https://www.facebook.com/220903377569) [![Share on linkedin](https://7528302.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hub/7528302/hubfs/raw_assets/public/mV0_d-web-default-modules_hubspot/img/linkedin-color.png?width=24&name=linkedin-color.png) ](https://www.linkedin.com/company/85780) [![Share on twitter](https://7528304.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hub/7528304/hubfs/raw_assets/public/mV0_d-web-default-modules_hubspot/img/twitter-color.png?width=24&name=twitter-color.png) ](https://twitter.com/EmpowerID) [![Share on pinterest](https://7528311.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hub/7528311/hubfs/raw_assets/public/mV0_d-web-default-modules_hubspot/img/pinterest-color.png?width=24&name=pinterest-color.png) ](http://www.youtube.com/user/empowerID) # All-In-One Identity Management and Cloud Security Emerging technologies are challenging old paradigms and unveiling new ways of approaching the security discipline that enables the right individuals to access the right resources at the right times for the right reasons. EmpowerID has embedded innovative technologies in every aspect, providing flexible and mature IAM capabilities in the cloud, on premise and in hybrid environments, addressing the mission-critical need across increasingly heterogeneous technology environments, and meeting increasingly rigorous compliance requirements. # Cloud identity: SSO, provisioning and security Posted by [Edward Killeen](https://blog.empowerid.com/blog-1/author/edward-killeen) on Wed, May 23, 2012 - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) ![cloud identity and security](https://blog.empowerid.com/hs-fs/file-18491448-jpg/images/cloud_identity_and_security.jpg)The cloud is like the wild west right now.  Cloud applications are roaming the plains like gunslingers in a Spaghetti Western.  That's a crazy analogy but the point is that all the hard work IT has done over the last decade to corral identities within your network has been rendered useless in the cloud. Everything you know about your user is rendered useless when they go out and create an account in the cloud.  A perfectly useful account for them to do their job but you in IT have no control over how they use it.  Or know what they're doing.  You have no idea what the user's cloud identity is: how they access it, what their account is, or if they should have access to it. You need to understand their cloud identity.  The best way to get a user to buy in to IT knowing about their cloud life is to offer them something.  Cloud single sign-on is the best incentive to get users buy-in.  Think about it, if you want to know that weird little obscure account they are using, tell them you'll help them sign on more easily with their network account. So, how do you integrate cloud identity into your network identity?  Workflow, beautiful role based workflow.  Let's take the biggest and most common example: salesforce.com.  In this example, you have 4 basic types of users who use salesforce: sales and service, user and manager.  Two departments, two roles in each. If you have an IdM platform provisioning users and giving them roles (if you don't, please call us!), just assign a workflow that provisions the cloud applications like salesforce.  You know the user's role, so you can assign different permissions in salesforce to a sales manager v. a service user. Once you've created the cloud account (in this case salesforce), you know the password, you have it linked to the user's network account.  You give the user single sign on to the cloud application.  Most cloud applications use some sort of standard authentication: SAML, WS-Trust, WS-Federation, and OAuth.  Now, between the provisioning, the SSO, and the role based access, you know what the user is doing in your audit and you have controlled the wild west. Of course, in this scenario you have also controlled what they do on network.  And you might have dozens of cloud applications that you now control.  Identity in the cloud is NOT different than identity on the network, you just need a way to manage both together.   [![Click me](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/174819/f32655b8-1c37-4a2a-a856-6d923755aa48.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/174819/f32655b8-1c37-4a2a-a856-6d923755aa48) Tags: [Single Sign-on (SSO)](https://blog.empowerid.com/blog-1/topic/single-sign-on-sso), [Role Based Access Control (RBAC)](https://blog.empowerid.com/blog-1/topic/role-based-access-control-rbac), [Identity and Access Management (IAM)](https://blog.empowerid.com/blog-1/topic/identity-and-access-management-iam) ### About EmpowerID EmpowerID is the all-in-one Identity Management and Cloud Security platform designed for people.  Globally managing millions of identities in diverse enterprises, EmpowerID offers comprehensive provisioning, single sign-on and access governance coupled with an industry leading user experience.  Built on a single codebase for manageability and scalability, EmpowerID ships with a powerful API, a visual workflow designer and over 400 ready-to-use workflows for rapid deployment.   [![Free Evaluation of EmpowerID](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/174819/daebe087-5275-487d-bf53-bb1d39fb9dc4.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/174819/daebe087-5275-487d-bf53-bb1d39fb9dc4) ### Latest Posts ### Posts by category - 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EmpowerID © 2021 EmpowerID ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Edward Killeen", "url" : "https://blog.empowerid.com/blog-1/author/edward-killeen" }, "datePublished" : "2012-05-23T15:04:00.000Z", "headline" : "Cloud identity: SSO, provisioning and security", "image" : [ "https://blog.empowerid.com/hs-fs/file-18491448-jpg/images/cloud_identity_and_security.jpg" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://blog.empowerid.com/blog-1/bid/155180/Cloud-identity-SSO-provisioning-and-security", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://blog.empowerid.com/hubfs/Asset%201.svg" }, "name" : "EmpowerID" } } ```