Federated authentication

If you use IBMid, you can already access all of your IBM products and services with a single login. Setting up IBMid's federated authentication option makes your experience even more seamless.

What is federated authentication?

With federated authentication, you can use your company's internal login credentials in place of your IBMid. You get the same ease of access that IBMid provides, without the need to remember or manage a separate account.

What are the advantages?

Aside from convenience, federated authentication has several advantages, including:
  • IBM products and services are more seamlessly integrated into your workflow.
  • It uses your company's security policies, not IBM's, so you can enforce your own password requirements and reset and expiration policies.
  • You can enable multi-factor authentication with your identity provider for extra security when your users access IBM products.
  • If your company uses a VPN, your VPN protects your access to IBM products.
  • When an employee leaves your company, they lose access to IBM products as soon as their access to your sign-in system is removed.

How can I set it up?

Admins can contact the IBMid Federation team at ibmidfd@us.ibm.com to begin the process of setting up federated authentication for their company. When you send the email, copy an IBM employee who is familiar with your account and offerings, such as a member of your account team, your Project Executive, or your Client Success Manager.

In the email, include one of the following IBM business sponsors as a key point of contact. Your IBM business sponsor works with your company and the IBMid Federation team to assist with communications and help you get support quickly.

  • SCBN Premium business sponsor: [Name/email TBD]
  • SCBN Standard business sponsor: [Name/email TBD]
  • SCBN Essentials business sponsor: [Name/email TBD]

Your company's identity provider must support SAML 2.0. IBMid supports both IdP-initiated calls and SP-initiated calls. For more information about federated authentication and its requirements, see the IBMid Enterprise Federation Adoption Guide.