Each infrastructure service provider will have a solution for managing authentication, users, and permissions which includes the ability to federate authentication with any SAML2-based identify provider.

For organizations that have a need for identify federation, additional planning and technical analysis is required before selecting a specific infrastructure service provider.

Similar to other infrastructure services, an organization must decide if they want to operate their own directory service or consume it as a managed service. Depending on the requirements for an organization’s directory service, which may include security and compliance regulations, a managed directory service could be an option. Organizations subject to PCI, HIPAA, or other regulations will have to take this into account. Many infrastructure service providers provide yearly audits to attest to PCI or HIPAA compliance, among a range of other standards and compliance frameworks, organizations should verify the selected infrastructure service provider has all required certifications.

As organizations makes their transition to a VMware Cloud based environment, there is an opportunity to re-evaluate their strategy for infrastructure services. For undifferentiated infrastructure services, organizations can simplify their infrastructure management and operations by considering cloud-native services.