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Introduction to Ory Polis for Ory Open Source (OSS)

Ory Polis - formerly known as BoxyHQ Jackson - is an Enterprise Single Sign-On (SSO) service for SAML and OIDC identity providers. It implements SSO as an OAuth 2.0 flow, abstracting away the complexities of the underlying SAML or OIDC protocol.

Architecture​

Ory Polis has been developed with a modular architecture. The business logic is separated into controllers which helps with incremental adoption of features.

Implementation Architecture

Features​

Ory Polis offers a range of features to simplify and secure enterprise SSO:

  • SAML/OIDC Enterprise SSO: Implements Single Sign-On for SAML or OIDC Identity Providers, abstracting the underlying protocol complexities and making it easy to connect with various enterprise identity systems.
  • OAuth 2.0 flow abstraction: Presents the SSO process as a standard OAuth 2.0 flow. Ideal for developers already familiar with OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect.
  • Data ownership and control: As an open-source solution, Ory Polis allows you to host the service yourself, ensuring you maintain full control over your data and your customers' identity information.
  • Flexible database support (BYOD): Supports a "Bring Your Own Database" model. This includes built-in compatibility for databases such as MySQL, MariaDB, Postgres, MongoDB, Redis, and PlanetScale, and works well with databases from major hosting providers.
  • Modular design: Built with a modular architecture where business logic is separated into distinct controllers, enhancing flexibility, maintainability, and the ability to adopt features incrementally.

Benefits​

Using Ory Polis for your enterprise SSO needs provides key advantages:

  • Simplify complex integrations: Reduce development effort by abstracting the intricacies of SAML/OIDC protocols. Interact with a familiar and straightforward OAuth 2.0 flow instead.
  • Flexible and adaptable deployment: The open-source nature and BYOD support mean you can deploy Ory Polis in your preferred environment, to fit it to your existing infrastructure and operational needs.

Use cases​

Ory Polis is ideal for a variety of scenarios requiring enterprise-grade authentication:

  • B2B application SSO: Allow users from your business customers to sign in to your multi-tenant SaaS application using their existing corporate SAML or OIDC identity providers (e.g., Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace).
  • Platform access for enterprise clients: Provide seamless and secure access for enterprise clients to your platform, enabling their employees to authenticate using their organization's credentials, thus improving user experience and security.
  • Standardize authentication: Consolidate how different enterprise customers access your services, to reduce the complexity of managing multiple authentication systems.

Next steps​

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