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Enterprise Identity Federation – Mike Schwartz

Track: Sessions – Day 1 | Ref: 1.6 Speaker: Mike Schwartz, Founder, Gluu

Overview​

Mike Schwartz from Gluu presented enterprise identity federation patterns for MCP, covering how organizations can leverage existing identity infrastructure — SAML, OIDC, and OAuth 2.0 — to secure agent interactions across organizational boundaries.

Multi-Tenant Identity Patterns​

  • Tenant isolation: Each tenant maintains its own identity provider and permission boundaries
  • Cross-tenant trust: Federation protocols enable controlled sharing across organizations
  • Identity mapping: Translating user identities between different IdP systems

OAuth 2.0 Implementation for MCP​

AspectApproach
Token managementShort-lived access tokens, refresh token rotation, token binding
Scope and permission modelsFine-grained scopes mapped to MCP tool capabilities
Consent patternsUser consent, admin pre-consent, delegated consent for agents

Federation Protocols​

  • SAML — Legacy enterprise SSO integration
  • OIDC (OpenID Connect) — Modern identity layer on top of OAuth 2.0
  • OAuth 2.0 — Authorization framework for MCP tool access

Enterprise Integration​

  • SSO integration: Connecting MCP gateways to existing enterprise SSO infrastructure
  • User provisioning: Automated creation and lifecycle management of agent identities
  • Group and role sync: Mapping organizational roles to MCP permission sets
  • Audit and compliance: Comprehensive logging of identity events for regulatory requirements

Multi-Tenant Architecture​

┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐
│   Tenant A   │  │   Tenant B   │  │   Tenant C   │
│   (IdP: Entra)│  │  (IdP: Okta) │  │ (IdP: Google)│
└──────┬───────┘  └──────┬───────┘  └──────┬───────┘
       │                 │                 │
       │    Federation Protocol (OIDC)     │
       │                 │                 │
       ▼                 ▼                 ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              MCP Gateway / Broker               │
│  (Token validation, tenant routing, audit)      │
└─────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┘
                      │
                      ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              MCP Tool Servers                   │
│  (Tenant-scoped access, permission enforcement) │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Key Takeaways​

  • Federation first: Leverage existing enterprise identity infrastructure rather than building new auth systems
  • Use established OAuth flows: Client credentials, authorization code, and token exchange cover MCP's needs
  • Defense in depth: Layer token validation, scope enforcement, and audit logging
  • Compliance built-in: Design identity architecture with audit and regulatory requirements from the start