There’s now a whole new way to log-in to your Google account

Google has announced its Cloud and Workspace accounts will now support single sign-on (SSO) from third-party identity providers in a welcome security boost.

The company says it hopes the move will allow customers to “more easily access Google’s services using their existing identity systems.” 

Google has supported SSO via the widely available SAML protocol for more than a decade, however allowing multiple SAML 2.0-based identity providers should increase the tech giant’s appeal to IT admins across the globe.

Google Cloud single sign-on

ON the company’s Cloud blog (opens in new tab), Google Workspace Identity Product Manager Matthew Soldo explained how companies will often end up with multiple identity providers, which could be down to mergers, acquisitions, or simply a variety of IT strategies. Soldo hopes that adding support for multiple identity providers will allow companies and workers to access Google Cloud without time-consuming migrations, which often result in complex transitions and issues.

Google Cloud administrators can enable up to 100 profiles from the Admin console. Setup includes keying in some elementary data, like a sign-in URL and an X.509 certificate for authentication. 

Future plans for the company’s single sign-on operations include the addition of OIDC support – another protocol that can be used alongside SAML-based identity providers. This is expected to arrive later in 2022.=

In an effort to make its cloud services as appealing to business customers as possible, Google has been pushing swathes of security updates, including alerts for potentially hazardous changes made to Google accounts.

Despite rumours of new apps that could be on their way to Workspace accounts, Google has also been in the spotlight for the wrong reasons, having threatened to turn back on its promise to early G Suite adopters.