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Single sign-on (SSO) with Kio Cloud

  • Updated

Kontakt.io offers a seamless and secure way your organization's staff to access the Kio Cloud platform by leveraging Single sign-on (SSO) technology. This means that staff can log in to Kio Cloud using your organization's SSO identity provider (IdP), which is a more secure method compared to using just a Kio Cloud username and password.

There are many benefits to implementing SSO with Kio Cloud, including:

  • Reduced administration time. You can manage staff access to the Kio Cloud platform from your organization's SSO identity provider. This is especially useful in larger organizations where the workforce regularly changes due to people joining, moving departments, leaving, and retiring.

  • Easier access. Your staff can seamlessly access Kio Cloud without needing to provide separate login credentials. They can log in using their SSO credentials, making the authentication process more convenient and efficient.

  • Security. With centralized user accounts managed from your SSO identity provider, you can apply security measure to all users, such as password strength, multi-factor authentication, and more.

About integrating your Kio Cloud with your SSO identity provider

Integrating Kio Cloud with your SSO identify provider streamlines the authentication process, enhances security, and provides a seamless user experience by leveraging a single set of login credentials across multiple applications.

The following provides a high-level overview of the integration.

Kio Cloud supported Single Sign-On (SSO) providers

Kontatk.io's Kio Cloud platform can integrate with one SSO identity provider of your choice that supports the Secure Assertion Markup Language (SAML) or OpenID Connect (OIDC) protocols. These are both widely adopted protocols for enabling seamless and secure authentication across different applications and systems.

  • Secure Assertion Markup Language (SAML). Supported by many identity providers such as Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), Okta, OneLogin, and Ping Identity

  • OpenID Connect (OIDC). Supported by many identity services including Google, Microsoft Azure Active Directory, Okta, Auth0, and Ping Identity

Integration Setup

To enable the integration, trust needs to be established between Kio Cloud and your organization's SSO identify provider. This involves exchanging metadata and configuration information between the two systems. The metadata contains details about your SSO identity provider and the Kio Cloud platform as the Service Provider, allowing them to recognize and communicate with each other securely.

A Kontakt.io Customer Success Manager will guide your team through the entire integration process, from gathering the required metadata to setup, test, and deploy.

Important integration highlights:

  • If you have multiple domains, your identity provider must be configured to support the multiple domains.

  • Kontakt.io grants your organization a unique Kio Cloud URL (yourcompanyname.app.cloud.us.kontakt.io); this is commonly referred to as a tenant.

  • Authentication to your organization's Kio Cloud URL is only available for users from your verified domain.

  • Your organization defines the default Kio Cloud apps and assigned roles for all first-time users.

User Authentication Flow

Once the integration setup is complete:

  1. Staff sign in to your organization's Kio Cloud URL. They are presented with your organization's SSO identity provider sign in. The user enters their SSO credentials and the SSO identify provider then verifies the credentials for authentication.

  2. Token exchange. Upon successful authentication, your SSO identity provider generates a token (such as a SAML or OIDC token). This token contains information about the user's identity, attributes, and authentication context. It is digitally signed by the SSO provider to ensure its integrity. Kio Cloud receives the SSO token from the user's browser. It then exchanges this token with your SSO provider to obtain a token specific to the Kio Cloud platform.

  3. User Creation and Authorization. Upon successful validation of the token, Kio Cloud creates a user account for the authenticated user if one doesn't already exist.

    For first-time users, they are assigned to the default Kio Cloud app roles defined by your organization during the SSO integration setup.

Kio Cloud User Permissions

User permissions are managed by the roles assigned to each user from the Kio Cloud Users app.

  • From the Users app, only those assigned to the Administrator role have permission to manage the roles assigned to users.

  • This integration does not remove the Kio Cloud users at anytime. A user assigned to the Administrator role within the Kio Cloud Users app can disable or delete users.

Want to learn more?

Reach out to your Kontakt.io Sales Representative or submit a request to our support team and they will get you in touch with the right person.

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