What are the industry standards for SAP authentication?

What's the industry standard as far as SAP authentication is concerned? Do most organizations use the native SAP authentication, or do they integrate SAP with external authentication servers such as LDAP and AD?

What's your recommendation on SAP authentication -- and is integration with external authentication servers a major undertaking?

Most companies are using SAP's password security as delivered. A relatively small percentage of companies are using active directory integration to support single sign-on. Some companies are using third-party authentication tools that may be linked to the active directory or other identity management services.

The size of a single sign-on undertaking can vary significantly based on underlying technology. Companies that use Microsoft for their SAP application servers are at a decided advantage, as Microsoft has delivered SSO options that can be quickly integrated to SAP. Single sign-on is an increasingly important opportunity as enterprises expose more SAP functionality to Web-based interfaces and integrate more applications across various platforms.