System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM) is a standard for automating the exchange of user identity information between identity domains, or IT systems. SCIM is used by companies that make use of applications/systems that are hosted on external domains – i.e. cloud applications like Google Apps, Office365 or Salesforce.com – to programmatically add/delete accounts for users on the external applications/systems. Instead of writing connectors to enable company’s IdM to setup, update and tear down accounts on external apps and systems, SCIM provides a standard way to do this.
SCIM uses a standardized REST API with data formatted in JSON or XML.
Unlike Federate Identity Management systems that rely on using an established account in one domain to authenticate a user to another domain, SCIM is used to automate the process of setting up, updating and tearing down user identity accounts across domains.