Member-only story
If you’re part of a team tasked with integrating into an identity and access management solution provider, the terms OpenID Connect (OIDC) and Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) are likely to be frequent in your discussions. Both are identity protocols employed in single sign-on (SSO) scenarios. This article explores the key distinctions between these protocols, providing insights to guide your choice for application integration by considering differences in design, implementation, and use cases.
SAML, with its extensive history, is deeply ingrained in critical infrastructure and widely adopted. Some teams may hesitate to replace it, given the perceived risk associated with transitioning to a more modern solution like OIDC. Teams might be cautious about embracing change when the existing solution is deemed reliable and functional.
Scenarios where SAML usage is prominent include:
- Enterprise Environments: Widely adopted in scenarios where SSO is needed across multiple applications and services, especially in legacy systems and enterprise applications. Some legacy systems and applications only support SAML which forces the enterprises to still maintain SAML integrations.
- XML-Based Requirements: Suitable for environments or standards mandating XML-based data formats…
