Engine Works
Under the hood of Alteryx: tips, tricks and how-tos.
We’re thrilled to announce a breakthrough to the Alteryx Server experience—one that many of you have been asking for.
If you’ve ever tried to switch your Server’s authentication method—say, from Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA) to SAML—you know it hasn’t exactly been… easy. In fact, up until now, we’ve told customers that the only supported way to make that change was to set up an entirely new environment and migrate everything over. Painful, time-consuming, and sometimes disruptive.
But not anymore. 🎉
We’ve developed a supported way to change your authentication method—from IWA to SAML—in a matter of hours, not weeks or months.
Why Does This Matter?
Changing your authentication method isn't something you do lightly, but many of you are required to do it:
- Your IT team is standardizing on SAML-based SSO solutions like Okta, Ping, or Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD).
- You need multi-factor authentication (MFA) to meet compliance requirements.
- You’re moving off Active Directory or prepping for a cloud-first future.
- You're looking to take advantage of SCIM support in Alteryx Server for automated group management.
In short, SAML brings flexibility, modern security features, and easier user management.
Why It Was So Hard (Until Now)
Let’s just say… switching auth methods used to be a project:
- Building a brand new Alteryx Server environment
- Reinstalling connectors, drivers, and dependencies
- Migrating assets via APIs (and hoping nothing breaks)
- Losing workflow version history and job execution logs
- Managing multiple environments during the transition
- Running up against extra infrastructure and licensing costs
You told us this was too much. You were right.
What’s Changed
Our new solution enables you to change the authentication type in-place on your existing Alteryx Server instance. That means:
- No new hardware
- No loss of workflow version history or job logs
- No duplicate environments
- No added infrastructure or licensing complexity
This process is now supported and can be completed in just a few hours, depending on your environment size and configuration.
What You Can Expect
The switch is now a realistic, low-friction option—even for production environments. We’ve worked hard to eliminate the major pain points, and our teams are ready to guide you through the process.
So whether you’re moving to SAML for security, scalability, or strategy, we’ve got your back.
Let’s Get You There
If your organization is looking to make the switch—or just wants to learn more—reach out to your Alteryx representative to get connected with professional services for details on how to get started.
This is just one more way we’re evolving Alteryx Server to meet the needs of modern data teams and enterprise IT alike.
Change doesn’t have to be hard. Now it isn’t.
