JumpCloud Community

urvashi · ‎11-16-2023

Key Takeaways

JumpCloud Go introduces a new solutions page that highlights its capabilities. Users can find overviews, configuration videos, and access to the JumpCloud Go feature brief, making it easy to understand and share.
JumpCloud Go offers passwordless authentication, providing a secure and convenient way to access resources. It leverages hardware-backed tokens stored in secure enclaves on Mac OS devices, eliminating the need for password entry.
The solution relies on browser extensions and is currently supported in Chrome, and plans are underway to add support for Edge and Brave, with extensions for Firefox and Safari in development.
The JumpCloud Go browser extension is expected to be fully supported by the end of Q1 next year, with an optimistic estimate of release before the end of the current year.
For more details on JumpCloud's passwordless authentication, visit the JumpCloud Go Solutions Page.

Introduction

Scott Reed, Senior Product Manager at JumpCloud, discusses the latest developments in JumpCloud Go, with a particular focus on the introduction of passwordless authentication. He emphasizes the importance of the newly launched solutions page, providing users with comprehensive insights into the capabilities of JumpCloud Go.

Scott demonstrates how passwordless authentication enhances security and user convenience by eliminating the need for traditional passwords and using hardware-backed tokens stored securely on Mac OS devices. He also highlights the evolution of authentication methods, from passwords to push authentication and now to passwordless authentication.

You can find the full video recording here:The IT Hour | Product Panel 10.20.2023

Speakers

Scott Reed, Senior Product Manager, JumpCloud

Transcript

Introducing JumpCloud Go’s New Solutions Page

Scott Reed:

Awesome. So I’m back to talk about JumpCloud Go and I want to show what's new. The thing I'm most excited about is our new solutions page. So this is the solutions page that highlights this amazing capability on this page. Not only can you find some overviews, a video of how this gets configured, there's also access to the JumpCloud Go feature brief, which can be a great asset to share if you're looking to dig into the details and understand more about JumpCloud, go and share that with others.

Passwordless Authentication

So what the heck is it seeing is believing? And let's play a real-world scenario, which is: I’m Scott, I work at a company called JumpCloud. We use this platform called JumpCloud. And JumpCloud is how I securely authenticate to the resources I use to get work done. One of those key resources is the JumpCloud community. So this will be demonstrating a natural initiated flow to a JumpCloud protected web resource.

Seamless Authentication Experience

So I'm a JumpCloud employee, so I click here to get here, and wow, look at this. Let's click again to log in with JumpCloud Go. Put my finger on my touch ID authenticator on my Mac, and here I am. I am now ready to make work happen. That is my authentication experience for the day. How did that all happen? That all happened with the immense amount of effort and work that's gone into this incredible solution that is JumpCloud Go.

Evolution of Authentication

And as the solution brief calls out, this is kind of this amazing feature that's at the intersection of productivity and security where we're using a hardware back token stored inside the secure enclave on my Mac OS device to get me to my resources without me having to enter a password. Thinking about where this fits in terms of your world as a user, as a human, we think about our security online, and as we've evolved with technology, we remember the days of entering just a password to get to our resources.

That then evolved into two-factor where we were getting codes on our phones that let those services we had our phones.

So we put the code in so that people couldn't hack us, and now we've evolved in some really powerful flows that involve those push authentications where we get pushes on our watches to approve. What's at the top of this model? Well, you just saw it, it's passwordless. It's the idea that your security is tied directly to your identity and your physical work computer, and having access to that, being signed into your work account and your work computer is what gives you the highest authenticator assurance to get you to your resource. So there's nothing more powerful on top of that than to throw in the inheritance factor. You are who you are, so that your fingerprint is what gets you there. So JumpCloud Go is us realizing the power of this incredible JumpCloud platform. It is certainly to protect and manage, right now, SSO applications. And the whole idea is that this is what you get with an all-in-one platform that does device, identity, SSO, and access management.

All-in-One Platform

So again, JumpCloud Go is the best place to dig into. It's on the website. And if you're curious where this lives inside your Admin Portal, go ahead and sign in here, and I'll show you where that lives.

Browser Extension Deployment

Inside the Admin Portal JumpCloud Go is enabled for all new accounts. All existing accounts have to first turn the feature on. So where this feature lives for existing accounts that might not have it enabled is on the Features tab. Once the feature is enabled, the way that we interact with the computer and the browser is through a browser extension. This is analogous to the Windows accounts extension that Microsoft uses for their primary refresh token. And you'll see right now we have the Chrome web extension. Currently in development are adding full support for Edge and Brave. They'll use the same Chrome extension, and we're developing two new extensions, one for Firefox and one for Safari. The way you can deploy this extension, it's up to you. With a powerful platform, as we talked about with Federation, we are all about understanding that you use other tools, other workforce productivity suites. You're welcome to use JumpCloud in our policies to deploy this extension. Or if you're a Google shop, I highly recommend using Chrome Browser Cloud Management as this really is a better together story between JumpCloud and Google as we can enforce enrollment into Chrome Browser Cloud Management, and then you can gain all of the power of managing the Chrome browser inside of this free-to-use tool (it doesn't actually require that you have a Google Workspaces paid account).

Chrome Browser Cloud Management

So really, really excited about our better together story with Chrome Browser Cloud Management. Then once it's there, we have this browser extension, highlight some of the new capabilities of the browser extension. You'll see right now that I'm on an open tab. If I click this, this now opens a new tab and brings me to the User Portal. If I happen to be in an empty tab and there's nothing that I'm highlighted on, I'm just in the new tab space, and I click it, it'll populate that new tab space with the user portal.

So I have a new behavior as a user using the JumpCloud that I'm constantly clicking on this to get to my user assets. And this is actually how I get to the Admin Portal now too, as you can get to the Admin Portal with just a click.

Release Timeline

So other browsers being released, ETA for JumpCloud Go? I can tell you, I would say by the end of Q1 next year is the most pessimistic estimate I have. The most optimistic estimate is to get it out to you before the end of the year. So I want to give you some boundaries on those pessimistic and optimistic estimates. And again, right now, the JumpCloud Go browser for chromium based, it can be installed, but it's in an unsupported capacity. I want to make sure that we run it through all the tests, but I've had a number of users pop up inside of the lounge saying, Hey, the JumpCloud Go browser extension works on Edge. It also works inside of Brave. Awesome, totally understand that it works. We want to make sure that we get it fully supported.

And in addition to making it fully supported, we will also be giving you information on how to deploy it. Every application is its own beast in terms of management. So Chrome is a fully managed enterprise browser, as highlighted by Chrome Browser Cloud Management. Edge also has some management controls as it's chromium management. But understand, when we get into the Firefox and Safari land, there may be different methods that are the roads to getting the browser extension installed. And we've got an open feature request with Safari to help us get managed extensions in there as an MDM vendor. But right now, all Safari extensions are user-led installs where the user is adding the extension to their browser.

Accessing Resources with One Click

So that's what I've got. I'm super excited to share these resources. I've highlighted what's new, and again, just as a user using it, one of my Easter eggs or something that I do as a new behavior that's saving me a ton of time is just getting used to clicking on this to get to the user portal so I can get to my resources with a single click. This also makes URL bookmarks potentially a lot more useful for your organization. So understand that this is a portal that if you're not using us for SSO, there's value to be had with JumpCloud Go - giving easy access to a potentially comfortable resources or a homepage. A lot of fun stuff that you can create and bring to your organization with JumpCloud Go, now that it's just a more seamless access way to get to the user portal and get to those precious resources inside of it.

Questions, Comments, Concerns

Also highlight, super excited if anyone has any questions, feedback on the new Macs login window. Want to shout out Kelly. She was a huge help in refining that at the MacAdmins conference in Penn State. So super excited to take our feedback, build that into the product, and that's what we're here for. We're here to listen. So any questions, comments, concerns, this platform, we are stewards building it for our prospects and customers. So we are here to help.