In an identity federation, accounts are maintained for users at the IdP site. However, an SP will often have its own set of user accounts, some of which may correspond to IdP users. The SP may also need to establish and maintain parallel accounts for remote SSO users to enforce authorization policy, customize user experience, comply with regulations, or a combination of such purposes.

To facilitate cross-domain account management, PingFederate provides two kinds of user provisioning for browser-based SSO, one designed for an IdP and one for an SP:

  • At an IdP site, an administrator can automatically provision and maintain user accounts for partner SPs who have implemented the System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM) or, when optional plugin SaaS Connectors are used, for selected hosted-software providers.
  • At an SP site, an administrator can provision accounts within the organization automatically from SCIM-enable IdPs or use information from SAML assertions received during SSO events.

For more information, see User provisioning.