How do we navigate the constant change of the digital age? How do we maintain security and order in a sea of mobile access and cloud services? The answer lies in the System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM)!
â± Reading time: 3 minutes
SCIM: Efficient identity management in a networked world
Today, we find ourselves in an ever-changing digital ecosystem of mobile access, cloud services and enterprise-wide applications. Sounds pretty complex, doesn’t it? This is where the Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM) system comes to the rescue! This clever tool automates and simplifies the exchange of identity information between different IT applications and systems.
The new world of digital access
As our working models evolve and new technologies emerge all the time, IT security is no longer tied to a fixed location or address. Managing who can access corporate applications and data in your own data centre or in the cloud, when, where and with what device is becoming increasingly challenging. One of the biggest challenges here is the secure management of digital identities. With SCIM, we can guarantee that only authorised persons can complete transactions.
SCIM in action
When companies hire or fire employees, the changes show up in their internal directory or identity management system. Thanks to SCIM, we can automatically integrate these changes into external systems such as web portals, Amazon AWS or Salesforce.
But there is more! SCIM can also be used to exchange information about user attributes and group memberships. This means that you have detailed control over the sharing of identity data and associated user permissions.
The growing importance of SCIM
As companies increasingly rely on SaaS tools and cloud-based services, SCIM is becoming more and more important. Large enterprises have hundreds or even thousands of hosted applications and servers that require user provisioning. Without SCIM, they would have to write specific software connectors to connect these systems to their IAM system – a laborious and time-consuming task.
Thanks to the application-level HTTP protocol, SCIM enables uniform management of identity data on the web and in cross-domain environments.
An overview of SAML 2.0, OAuth 2.0, SCIM 2.0 and OpenID Connect
In the modern field of identity management, there are many standards and protocols, all of which play a crucial role in IT security. Here is a brief overview:
- SAML 2.0: A security protocol for exchanging authentication and authorisation data between parties.
- OAuth 2.0: A protocol for delegated authorisation.
- SCIM 2.0: A standard for automated identity management.
- OpenID Connect: An authentication layer for OAuth 2.0.
Outlook
In today’s world, companies increasingly rely on new technologies and working models. Supporting standards and protocols such as SCIM are essential for efficient identity and access management.
Our products are compliant with these standards and are used, among others, by one of the largest German IT service providers, T-Systems. Find out more in our reference report!
