Mastering Salesforce Community Authentication: AWS Cognito & Azure AD (now Entra ID) Integration in Action

Your Salesforce community offers a powerful platform to connect with your customers, partners, and employees in a secure and collaborative environment. 

However, managing authentication can become a tall order if you are a large organization with thousands of employees, partners, and customers—each requiring secure access to different Salesforce Community portals.

Without a unified login system, users are stuck juggling multiple credentials, leading to security risks, frustrated teams, and an overwhelmed IT department. The result? More time spent on password resets than on productivity.

This is where AWS Cognito comes into play. 

As a robust identity management solution, AWS Cognito enables businesses to manage authentication and authorization efficiently while integrating with external identity providers like Microsoft Azure AD (now Entra ID).

For example, a multinational corporation uses Azure AD for internal employees and AWS Cognito for external partners. Instead of separate login systems, integrating them allows employees and partners to access the Salesforce community with their existing credentials. This enhances security and ensures a smooth sign-on experience.

This integration is key to solving challenges like managing multiple identity sources, ensuring session consistency, and handling secure token exchanges. 

Let’s walk you through how we successfully implemented this integration for one of our customers.

Know the Customer

The customer, an Austin, Texas-based educational software company, develops and sells SaaS solutions for content control, mobile device management, alerts, and classroom management in schools. 

Bridging Identity Providers for a Seamless Experience

The objective of this project was to develop an authentication system that:

• Uses AWS Cognito for user management
• Integrates Azure AD as an external Identity Provider
• Enables seamless access to Salesforce Community
• Ensures compliance with security standards
• Provides a frictionless user experience

Breaking Barriers in Authentication Architecture

This project came with its own set of complexities. The key challenges included:

• Configuring AWS Cognito to act as the primary Identity Provider for the Salesforce Community
• Setting up Azure AD (Entra) as an external Identity Provider
• Managing token exchanges and user attribute mappings between systems
• Maintaining consistent session management across platforms
• Handling authentication errors and edge cases effectively

Solution Architecture

To achieve our objective, we built a solution using the following component stack:

• Frontend: Salesforce Community
• Primary IdP: AWS Cognito
• External IdP: Microsoft Azure AD (Entra)
• Backend: Salesforce Platform

Authentication Flow

1. Initial Access: When a user attempts to access Salesforce Community, they are redirected to the AWS Cognito login interface.
2. Cognito Processing: Cognito identifies Azure AD as the external IDP and redirects the user to Azure AD for authentication.
3. Azure AD Authentication: The user logs in with their Azure AD credentials. Azure AD validates the user and generates a SAML assertion.
4. Final Authorization: The token from Azure AD is sent back to Cognito, which then generates a JWT for the Salesforce Community. The user gains access to the community resources.

From Concept to Deployment – Our Step-by-Step Deployment Approach

Here’s our step-by-step approach to integrating AWS Cognito, Azure AD, and Salesforce for seamless authentication.

Phase 1: AWS Cognito Setup

• Created a new User Pool in AWS Cognito
• Configured user attributes and mapping
• Set up security policies and password requirements
• Established SAML integration endpoints

Phase 2: Azure AD Integration

• Registered a new enterprise application in Azure AD
• Configured SAML settings and certificates
• Set up user attribute mapping
• Established a trusting relationship with Cognito

Phase 3: Salesforce Community Configuration

• Created a new authentication provider
• Configured Cognito as a SAML IDP
• Set up user provisioning and mapping
• Implemented error handling and logging

Security Considerations

Security was a crucial aspect of the project. To ensure compliance and protect user data, we implemented:

• Multi-factor authentication for enhanced security
• Encryption of data in transit
• Token validation and verification
• Effective session management and timeout handling
• Regular security audits and monitoring

The Value of Seamless Authentication

Our solution provided several key benefits, including:

Enhanced Security

• Centralized authentication management
• Multi-factor authentication support
• Comprehensive audit trails for tracking access

Improved User Experience

• Seamless single sign-on across platforms
• Reduced login friction
• Consistent authentication experience

Operational Efficiency

• Centralized user management for simplified administration
• Automated user provisioning to minimize manual effort
• Reduced administrative overhead

The Bottom Line

Integrating AWS Cognito with Azure AD gave our client a seamless, secure authentication system for employees and external partners. By centralizing access, the IT team cut down on admin overhead while ensuring compliance with enterprise security standards. With multi-factor authentication, encrypted token exchanges, and strong session management in place, security was significantly enhanced—without complicating the user experience. Plus, the solution was built to scale effortlessly with the organization’s growth.

We’ve tackled authentication and integration challenges across industries as a Summit Salesforce partner. Whether it’s this or something completely different, our Salesforce-certified experts are always up for a challenge.

Want to Set Up Amazon Cognito With Azure AD? Talk to Us.