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Whether prompted by the compliance requirements of HIPAA or GLBA, the growing need to strengthen IT security, or mounting user frustration due to forgotten passwords, more and more organizations are thinking seriously about implementing Enterprise Single Sign-On (ESSO). According to Giga Research analyst Steve Hunt, "Enterprise SSO works well and makes sense. It is a secure, cost effective tool for adding value to an organization. It would be wise for vendors to implement it today."
But when organizations look at the ESSO marketplace, they may feel the need to send out an SOS. There is a growing number of ESSO vendors offering a diverse array of solutions each with its own capabilities, associated costs, resource requirements, deployment needs, and implementation times. The lack of a common approach to delivering ESSO makes it a challenge for organizations to compare the relative merits of ESSO solutions.
No single ESSO solution can be right for every company. So how do you know which one best suits your business, its size, your budget, or your desired implementation schedule?
This white paper is intended to make the ESSO evaluation process simpler and faster by identifying the critical questions you need to ask ESSO vendors as you evaluate their solutions. These questions are organized into four key ESSO topics: application support; deployment; ongoing management; and additional features, tools and services. By asking these questions and comparing vendor responses, you'll get a clearer picture of the capabilities and strengths of each ESSO solution, as well as its requirements and associated costs. Once you're armed with that information, you'll be well on your way to choosing an ESSO solution that keeps your organization's assets more secure, and your people more productive. The right ESSO solution will also deliver a quick and significant return on your investment.
Application Support
By definition, an "Enterprise Single Sign-On" solution has to do just that; it must provide SSO access across the enterprise. While you may deem ESSO only essential for some of your applications and users, an ESSO solution must still offer you the option of supporting all applications and all users at all locations all the time.
That's a tall order when you consider the complexity of today's corporate IT environments, the growing number of devices people use to access their applications, and the globally-dispersed nature of many organizations. These environments often include legacy applications that have been modified and updated over years or even decades. Some have client/server applications that split processing chores between desktop workstations and departmental servers. And increasingly, organizations are using Web-based applications owned and run by third-party vendors. Users are accessing these applications from a variety of locations using everything from wired PCs to wireless laptops to personal digital assistants (PDAs).
Some of the most important questions to ask ESSO solution providers involve application support. That's because a sizeable portion of the cost, resource requirements, and implementation time of an ESSO solution depend on how that solution handles the process of ESSO-enabling an application. Generally speaking, the more application modifications, customization, and workstation installations are required to ESSO-enable each application, the longer it will take to deploy, the more resources will be required, and the more it will cost.
The Questions
How many ESSO-enabled platforms does the solution cover "out of the box?" Applications use many different technologies, including Java, Visual Basic, C++, Windows, the Web and numerous host emulators. Are your applications "well-behaved" in terms of code design or will they pose a challenge to the ESSO solution? Applications may be accessed remotely or via terminal services. Have these applications and users been considered?
Does the solution require development of custom connectors for ESSO-enabling certain applications?
Back-end connectors can be complex and may require changes to the application code. Are you prepared for this, and do you have access to the source code of your applications should this be required by an ESSO solution?
What happens when providers release new versions of applications? Will scripting be required?
Do you have to continually update every client, or does the solution handle it automatically? Script-based ESSO solutions may create the need for a dedicated resource for changes, and maintenance of the script library. Does the ESSO solution require the scripts to be managed?
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