Federation of Identity and Education: securing and simplifying access to digital services

Published on January 12, 2021 by Laure - Updated on 14 mai 2024 à 11H36

In the digital age, students, Teachers, School Administrators... have to access several digital applications on a daily basis, requiring them to create and remember numerous logins and passwords.

Identity federation and the Single Sign On (SSO) system are a good solution to the proliferation of account creation. Single sign-on simplifies the user's journey between different digital Services, and tends to reinforce Practices.

What is identity federation?

Identity federation makes it possible to manage identities and accesses in order to attest to the identity of a User and his or her authorization to access to certain Information System resources.

Identity federation involves 3 entities:

  • The User who needs access to Digital resources
  • The digital service provider
  • The identity provider



Do you have an identity federation project?
Our experts are at your service.

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Identity federation and SSO secure and simplify access to digital applications


Identity federation is transparent to the user. With the SSOcomponent, he or she uses a singlea single login and password to access multiple digital applications.

The service provider no longer needs to manage user accounts with login and password: it's the user who manages his or her own account, with a "lost password" system. The service provider can personalize the content content and and control access according to the user's profile.

The identity provider is part of a framework of trust for secure personal data and simplify access for Users.

National identity providers, such as EduConnectallow you to use a single access account to digital services throughout your schooling, even if you change Class, School or Regional education authority.


Fédération d'identité et SSO | Kosmos
Fédération d'identité et SSO | Kosmos - Fédération d'identité et SSO : sécurité et accès simplifié aux applis numériques


fédération d'identité kosmos
fédération d'identité kosmos

Identity federation applied to the world of education

Kosmos, a specialist in the digital transformation of education, offers a solution for identity federation compatible with current standard protocols : CAS, SAML2 and OpenId Connect and enables interoperability with all Regional education authorities and national identity providers, such as EduConnect and FranceConnect. These protocols are implemented using theShibboleth software suite.

Our teams have worked with many players in the education sector as resource and/or identity providers:

  • In primary and secondary education
    • ENT BFC: identity federation deployed on a territory-wide scale via a digital workspace, providing access to numerous external services via a single account: Regional education authority and Local authority web portals, LMS Moodle™, Teaching resources via GAR...
    • And all our other territorial projects
  • In higher education
    • Campus Condorcet Campus Condorcet: identity federation has been implemented using pre-existing logins and passwords from the various components of Campus Condorcet (EHESS, CNRS, EPHE, INED, Sorbonne nouvelle, Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne, etc.).), enabling researchers and students alike to use the Campus' digital services.
  • In professional and continuing training
    • CESI Kosmos developed the ENT for learners and employees. A CAS-type SSO type SSO has been set up, enabling a User to access any of CESI's digital Services after initial authentication on theActive Directory Federation Services (ADFS)configured in multi-tenant mode. Among these services: ENT, Moodle™, Office 365, Timetable, documentary resources, etc.

Whether or not you have an identity provider, Kosmos adapts to your needs.
Our teams can advise you on how to implement identity federation: contact us.

Contact us now!