Frontend authentication challenges in the real world
As outlined in Chapter 6, Trends in API Authentication, multiple IdPs for the same purpose within the same organization will lead to several side effects. When we refer to IdPs for the same purpose, we mean an IdP applied to common audiences or channels, such as consumer authentication, employee authentication, or app authentication, each of which represents a different purpose. The IdP for consumer authentication may be different from the one used for employee authentication; indeed, it would be inefficient to have multiple IdPs for employee authentication.
Mixing IDPs for the same purpose is hardly ever done on purpose. Most of the time, this anti-pattern occurs as a result of poor strategy in an organization and decisions siloed by team, as described in the previous section.
Just to give an example, let’s try to imagine an organization with multiple IdPs authenticating customers to their end services; it would create...
