What are the industry standards for SAP authentication?

What are the industry standards for SAP authentication?

What's the industry standard as far as SAP authentication is concerned? Do most organizations use the native SAP authentication, or do they integrate SAP with external authentication servers such as LDAP and AD?

What's your recommendation on SAP authentication -- and is integration with external authentication servers a major undertaking?

    Requires Free Membership to View

    When you register, you will start receiving targeted emails from my award-winning team of editorial writers. Our goal is to keep you informed on the hottest topics and biggest challenges faced by SAP professionals today.

    Hannah Smalltree, Editorial Director

    By submitting your registration information to SearchSAP.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchSAP.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

Most companies are using SAP's password security as delivered. A relatively small percentage of companies are using active directory integration to support single sign-on. Some companies are using third-party authentication tools that may be linked to the active directory or other identity management services.

The size of a single sign-on undertaking can vary significantly based on underlying technology. Companies that use Microsoft for their SAP application servers are at a decided advantage, as Microsoft has delivered SSO options that can be quickly integrated to SAP. Single sign-on is an increasingly important opportunity as enterprises expose more SAP functionality to Web-based interfaces and integrate more applications across various platforms.

This was first published in March 2006