Biometric Authentication Software Brings Biometrics to Web Applications

Today’s computing is taking a shift towards mobility, which is also one of the prime requirements of present day technology consumers. This trend is evident in businesses as well as individuals. Ability to access data and connect to the corporate resources on-the-go has increased business agility as well as operational efficiency. Productivity of business users greatly dependent on the applications they use. Eruption of mobile devices in recent years has also boosted application driven ecosystem. Let it be personal tasks or business endeavours, there are apps for the both. We have been fond of installable local applications so far. They are fast, easy to use and easier to share. However, as technology advances and connectivity improves, web based application are also becoming appealing due to their flexibility, ease of access and many other benefits they offer.

On one hand, this trend offers benefits of web applications; on the other hand it requires revamp of user account security strategies. Fortunately, biometric authentication software for web applications makes setting up authentication with user biometrics quick and easy.

When Steve Jobs famously quoted “There is an app for that”, he know what he was saying. We all have experienced power of applications. Applications are tools that end-users use and their personal tasks as well as professional productivity pretty much depends on how user friendly and efficient these apps are. An inefficient application cannot help users, no matter how powerful the hardware is. It would not be exaggerating to say that today’s end-user computing experience is largely dependent on applications. When we interact with a smartphone or a computer, we basically interact with applications. And this space is increasingly being taken over by web apps.

Cloud and SaaS (Software as a Service) offerings have also played a role in making web applications popular. Web applications offering from top cloud players like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, etc. provides a top notch user experience, sometime even better than locally installable applications. With SaaS offerings going cheap, comparatively smaller business, which have been relying on locally installable applications, are also looking at web apps.

• Web based applications are naturally robust against incidents that may cause data loss. They may be hosted on servers located far away from the client location. In case of any incident that brings client IT infrastructure down, data on remote servers stays unaffected.
• Omnipresent. They can be accessed from anywhere. If a user has access to the internet and a web browser, she can access the application from any location.
• No compatibility issues. Web application eliminates OS specific dependence. It will run as good as on Windows as on macOS or Linux. Since popular browsers are available across all major platforms, the app just need compatibility with the browser to stay functional.
• Web applications are easy to distribute, as easy as sharing a link! There is no need to send updated versions to the clients. Updates can be deployed right on the hosting server and are instantly available to all users as soon as they go live.
• No need of additional software and tools like databases, report generators, DLLs, etc.

Present day technology users seek instant connectivity and deployment. They do not want hassles of installing and setting up applications, checking for their hardware compatibility, arranging new hardware or software to run apps. Web applications fit nicely in these requirements.

Traditionally, passwords have been used for protecting user accounts on web applications; however, it is no more arguable that passwords have become an obsolete method of user authentication in today’s fast paced digital era. They not only slow down the process of user authentication, users tend to forget complex passwords and have to go through painful password reset process. On the other hand, simple passwords are either prone to be compromised or no more are an option on most online services as most services providers have already implemented minimum password complexity requirements. Biometric authentication offers a solution to all above inadequacies that a password based authentication system suffer from. Human beings have many physiological and behavioural characteristics that can be used to uniquely identify them with help of biometric technology.

Implementing biometric authentication on local applications has become very easy as most operating systems offer native ability for biometric recognition. However, implementing same ability on web applications can be little tricky. There are many biometric solution providers that provide tools and SDK to setup biometric authentication within customized applications. Before choosing tools or SDKs to setup biometric authentication on a web application, selecting the biometric modality of choice is required. Since every biometric recognition method is fundamentally different from each other, one-size-fits-all approach does not work. Biometric authentication software makes implementation process manageable so that the implementer or programmer can concentrate their efforts on objectives rather than investing time in developing the functionality from the scratch. There are many biometric solution providers that offer biometric authentication software that support web based API to implement biometric recognition ability on web applications.

Biometric authentication SDKs can be specific to hardware used so again there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Most providers offer biometric authentication software at the cost of licence per PC. For example, Bayometric’s Touch N Go fingerprint SDK offers organizations a cost-effective turnkey biometric solution leveraging best of breed technologies so organizations can focus on their core operations. The fingerprint API of the solution integrates seamlessly into any Windows or web-based application. It supports popular web-browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. Biometric authentication software are designed the way that programmers have to put minimal efforts to integrate the biometric authentication ability within their application.

Web applications have gained popularity in personal as well as professional use cases in recent years. Earlier installable applications were more popular due to limited numbers of web based offerings and limitations of the internet connectivity. Advancements in technology resulted in web applications being more efficient as well as light-weight. Improved internet connectivity and speed has also helped in improving overall user experience on web applications.

As biometrics is taking over traditional identity authentication methods (e.g. PINs, passwords, tokens, etc.) everywhere, it becomes imperative to set up a quick and easy way to implement biometric authentication ability within the web applications as well. Biometric authentication software consists of APIs that seamlessly integrates into any web application and reduces efforts required for implementing the ability.