Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

For additional security more and more organisations have a corporate policy that requires so-called Two-Factor Authentication aka 2FA (Wikipedia), also for cloud applications like Cirrus.

As an example, an organisation may use Azure Active Directory (AAD) to give it's users access to all its cloud applications like Office365 (which relies on AAD), Blackboard, Gmail. With Two-Factor Authentication enforced in Azure Active Directory and access to their cloud applications via Azure Active Directory, all their cloud applications are behind Two-Factor Authentication.

Office365 relies on AAD for user access management so if your organisation already uses Office365 it would fit the example.

In the example above we have:

1. Identity Provider with SAML 2.0 and Two-Factor Authentication support
2. Service Providers (Cloud applications) with SAML 2.0 support

Most modern Identity Providers support both SAML 2.0 and Two-Factor Authentication, a small selection of well-known examples:

1. Microsoft Azure Active Directory (also used by Office 365)
2. Microsoft Active Directory through Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services
3. Citrix
4. Google Workspace
5. Amazon Cognito
6. SAP
   (Additionally there are a multitude of Open Source alternatives available, e.g. RedHat IM, Gluu, OpenIAM, ...)