Ping Identity Solutions delivers single sign-on services to internet applications. Azure Active Directory Premium customers will get a new feature that leverages the technology. The new preview service will be rolled out on March 24. The partnership will help users on Azure create single sign-on solutions within legacy web apps. Microsoft says the ability will be available within cloud-based services and on-premises. Microsoft has teamed with Ping Identity Solutions to uses its PingAccess technology. By integrating it into Azure Active Directory Premium, the company can enable the Application Proxy service to function in aging applications. “Our customers have consistently asked for [Azure AD] Application Proxy to also support apps that use headers for authentication, such as PeopleSoft, NetWeaver Portal, and WebCenter,” explained Harshini Jayaram, a program manager on the Azure Active Directory team. “To enable this capability for our Azure AD Premium customers, we have partnered with Ping Identity. Ping Identity’s PingAccess now allows Application Proxy to support apps that use header-based authentication.” Azure AD customers will be aware that the platform already supports single sign-on in many cases. For example, the service allows this authentication for web apps based on open protocols. However, some legacy apps require headers for authentication. PingAccess will allow those apps to enable modern authentication practices.
PingAccess in Azure AD Premium
Here’s how the process works, from a Ping Identity blog post:
When requesting access, the Microsoft App Proxy redirects to PingAccess. PingAccess sends users to Azure AD for authentication as necessary. PingAccess converts Azure AD authentication tokens to HTTP header attributes. The web application uses the header attributes to grant user access.
Subscribers to Azure AD Premium will get free authentications within their subscription. However, customers only get 20 applications for free. After that, to use PingAccess technology, users will have to buy a license from Ping Identity Solutions. As mentioned, this feature will become available in preview on Friday (March 24). Microsoft says a general availability roll out will come “before the end of June 2017”.
