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Squiz Matrix Newsletter #393

The 2012 Squiz and Funnelback International User Conference kicked off yesterday at the Hilton Brisbane Hotel. After an opening day of presentations, including the product launch of Squiz Roadmap, today focused on user involvement, providing an assortment of workshops and training sessions for attendees

Learn more about Squiz's latest offering, Squiz Roadmap.

We'll have a full report on the conference in next week's newsletter so, until then, we have an exciting new feature to whet your appetite. Squiz Matrix's new SAML Account Manager asset provides federated access management with SAML 2.0 authentication and authorisation. Continue reading below for more information on all this week's developments.

SAML Federated Access Management

Due for release in version 4.10.2 (September 3rd 2012) 

Security Assertion Markup Language 2.0 (SAML 2.0) is an XML-based standard for authenticating and authorising access to secure domains, that is, between an identity provider and a service provider. SAML 2.0 enables web-based authentication, providing federated access management through single sign-on and identity verification.

This feature enables federated access management within Squiz Matrix, providing authentication via SAML 2.0 identity providers.

Integration with the SAML 2.0 protocol will be enabled through a new SAML Account Manager asset within Matrix. This asset will allow Matrix to serve as a service provider, delegating user authentication to SAML 2.0 identity providers to achieve federated access. 

When a user first accesses the Matrix database via the SAML Account Manager asset, they will be redirected to the SAML 2.0 identity provider for authentication. Once a user's identification has been validated by the identity provider, they will be redirected back to Squiz Matrix.

A user's account within Matrix will be associated with the SAML identity, enabling federated access to Matrix, automatically signing the user into their Matrix account as part of the SAML authentication process. If no associated user account is found, the user will be able to either create a new account within Matrix to use for federated access or sign-in to an existing Matrix account to link to the authenticated identity.