Exploring Authentication and Authorization

Windows Azure includes a few options when it comes to authentication and authorization. While you can host a site that uses a Membership Provider approach in Azure (with the help of the ASP.NET Universal Providers, which can be found on NuGet as ID System.Web.Providers), the trend in the security space has steadily been migrating to standards-based protocols such as SAML and OAuth that allow federated single sign-on. While these protocols are a huge step in the right direction, they are known for being difficult to get set up.

Azure makes this setup into a somewhat trivial afterthought with the help of the Access Control Service (ACS). With just a few clicks in the Azure Management Portal, you can have your site configured to accept security tokens from a few of the major identity providers such as Google, Yahoo!, and Windows Live. The Windows Azure Access Control Service web page provides steps for how to do this.