Along the lines of keeping things simple, I came across this photo recently:
I have probably told the story of Boeing's SAML deployment maybe 1000 times in different venues in the 4 years since I helped the team in Seattle put their first generation federation technology in place. Oftentimes, those discussions focus on detailed technical concepts or high level strategic aspects related to federated identity and SAML and the actual business purpose of federated identity can get lost.
That's why I love this picture. At the end of the day, Boeing's use of SAML helps this guy on the shop floor get his job done more efficiently.
The maintenance information he is accessing in a browser on a laptop is hosted at Boeing. 10 or 11 years ago, he would have been paging through a paper manual that Boeing shipped out on the back of a truck. Putting the airline maintenance info on the web was one big step towards making his job easier. Layering in federation and SAML to provide SSO is just another move along the same continuum.
Simple.
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