Authentication forms the foundation of your security infrastructure, and access privileges granted to users (or systems) are predicated on the notion that users are who they claim to be. There are a number of options available to help you do this with SAP systems, including password parameters, secure network communications (SNC), X.509 digital certificates, and Pluggable Authentication Services (PAS), all of which are discussed in this article. But authentication is a must for SAP and non-SAP systems alike — and before you know it, your users are faced with numerous logon prompts from different systems, each requiring different user IDs and passwords. SAP's solution for this is single sign-on (SSO). This article shows you how to use SSO to authenticate users across multiple, standalone SAP systems, and also how the mySAP Workplace can provide SSO for SAP systems and third-party applications across your company's intranet, and even across the Internet.
Juergen Schneider
Dr. Jürgen Schneider received his Diploma and his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany, in 1987 and 1991, respectively. Between 1991 and 1996 he led several research projects in the areas of network management and security at IBM’s European Networking Center in Heidelberg. In 1996, Jürgen joined the SAP Security Basis development team in Walldorf, and since 1998 he has been the Development Manager for Security in SAP’s Technology Development department.
You may contact the author at j.schneider@sap.com.
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