One embodiment of the present invention provides a system to facilitate global timeout in a distributed computing environment. The system operates by receiving an access request from a user at an application within the distributed computing environment. The system determines if the distributed computing environment has issued an authentication to a user device through which the user accesses the application and also determines if the authentication has expired because of non-use for a specified period. This authentication is stored within a time-stamped token on the user-device. If the authentication has not been received or has expired, the system redirects the access request to a single sign-on server for the distributed computing environment requiring the user to reauthenticate with the distributed computing environment, otherwise the system grants the user access to the application.