Authentication — SSO — Google Cloud Identity (IDaaS) — Create your free tenant from scratch

This article deals with how to create a Google Workspace tenant to take advantages of Google Cloud Identity Free subscription to be able to integrate applications with Google’s Single Sign-On (SSO).

Google Cloud Identity

Overview

Google Cloud Identity is Google’s cloud-based identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) solution that helps organizations manage users, groups, and devices.

In essence, it serves as your digital gatekeeper, providing secure access control and authentication for both Google services and third-party applications with a unified management interface.

At its heart, Google Cloud Identity offers:

• Centralized Identity Management: It lets you create, organize, and manage user accounts and groups in one unified directory.
• Secure Access & Single Sign-On (SSO): It supports SSO across many applications using industry-standard protocols like SAML and OIDC, so your users log in once to access multiple services.
• Device Management: You can register and manage devices (like laptops or mobile devices), enforce basic security policies (such as password requirements and lock screen settings), and monitor device compliance.
• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): To help safeguard user accounts, it supports adding a second factor of authentication as an extra security layer.

Cloud Identity Free subscription

Google offers a free subscription of Google Cloud Identity cleverly named… Cloud Identity Free.

It encompasses essential identity and endpoint management functionalities. Managed Google Accounts are offered to users who do not require specific Google Workspace services like Gmail and Google Calendar.

Nevertheless, users can utilize Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Sites, Slides, Keep, and Meet. Cloud Identity accounts are also compatible with other Google services, including Google Cloud, Chrome, Android Enterprise, and numerous third-party applications.

The Free subscription is limited to 50 licenses.

N.B: if you want to know more about differences between Free and Premium subscription: https://cloud.google.com/identity/docs/editions

Setup

Prerequisites

You need a domain name and the admin username and password to your domain registrar to get started. Indeed, you’ll need to add DNS entries in order to prove that the domain name belongs to you.

N.B: for testing/sandbox purposes, you can buy a low-cost domain (example .ovh 1,99€HT 1st year then 2,99€HT)

Google Workspace customer tenant creation

To use and activate your Google Cloud Identity Free subscription, you need to create a Google Workspace customer tenant.

Just sign-up to https://workspace.google.com/gcpidentity/signup?sku=identitybasic and follow the guided instruction.

Once done, you’ll be able to check that you well have a Cloud Identity Free subscription in the Google Workspace administration console.

Licences are automatically assigned to your users.

Conclusion

Your Google Workspace tenant is up and running and you’ll be able to integrate your application with Google’s Single Sign-On.

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