Enabling SSO for Legacy WAM applications with Okta

Today’s enterprises are quickly adopting cloud-based solutions for business applications and Identity as a Service (IDaaS) providers such as Okta for single-sign on (SSO) and more. While remarkably convenient, a cloud-based architecture creates its own architectural and integration challenges that have typically been solved by an on-premise Web access management (WAM) solution.

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“ICSynergy’s ServiceProvider-Gateway (SP-Gateway) seamlessly enables SSO for your legacy WAM applications”

These challenges are exactly what ICSynergy spent decades of cumulative experience solving for clients. Leveraging this extensive experience, we have created a unique solution SP-GATEWAY that seamlessly enables management and SSO to your legacy WAM applications while gaining the benefits of an IDaaS platform such as Okta.

One of the many reasons we use Okta’s IDaaS platform is that it enables the rapid and secure adoption of federation-enabled applications (SAML and WS-Fed). Additionally, Okta provides a browser plugin-based solution for posting credentials to applications that are not federation-enabled.

But, how do you solve the SSO integration challenge posed by applications that require custom HTTP headers and/or a classic WAM integration? Enabling all applications to use SAML may not be possible due to cost, complexity, and 3rd party application ownership. Additionally, maintaining a WAM solution and migrating some applications to Okta decentralizes application access and creates more systems and infrastructure to manage.

ICSynergy’s SP-Gateway (figure #1) solution is tightly integrated with Okta and enables an enterprise to extend Okta’s SSO platform to applications that require a WAM-like solution. This enables deeper integration of Okta into the enterprise application environment, enables the centralization of application access for end users, and reduces the number of solutions required to provide single sign-on access to applications.

Figure 1

Figure 1: Tightly integrated with the Okta platform

ICSynergy’s SP-Gateway integrates with Okta as an industry standard SAML Service Provider (SP) endpoint, enabling Okta to be the single authentication point (IDP) for every application. Our SP-Gateway consumes Okta SAML assertions and injects required attributes into WAM-based applications for the act of SSO and authorization (figure #2). We allow every SSO integration to be customized on a per-application basis to ensure the unique WAM integration needs of the application are met.

Figure 2

Figure 2: Passes SAML attributes to WAM applications

In summary, ICSynergy’s SP-Gateway allows quick and easy integration with Okta for protecting WAM applications while leveraging the authentication and authorization mechanisms within Okta. More importantly, your end users will have a seamless UI experience (figure #3) accessing SAML apps or legacy WAM apps within the Okta application dashboard.

Diagram - Configuring SP-Gateway

Figure 3: Seamless access to WAM applications within Okta

Using ICSynergy’s SP-Gateway is as easy as these four steps:

  1. Install ICSynergy’s SP-Gateway.
  2. Configure the trust between the SP-Gateway and your Okta Org.
  3. Log into the SP-Gateway to wire up your WAM applications.
  4. Test the authentication workflow.

Additional business cases that the SP-Gateway solve:

  1. Decommission home-grown or proprietary SSO frameworks.
  2. Enabling authentication to content for marketing campaigns.
  3. Enabling remote access to applications and resources that don’t require authentication – increasing auditability and compliance.
  4. Save money and time. Simplifying application development and application authentication mechanisms.

Contact ICSynergy to learn how we can increase application integration adoption within your Okta solution.

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