In the context of integrating Salesforce with external systems, what does OAuth provide?

The correct choice emphasizes that OAuth serves as a secure authentication protocol for external systems, which is a vital function in the context of integrations involving Salesforce. OAuth allows users to grant third-party applications limited access to their services without exposing their credentials, thus enhancing security.

This method ensures that sensitive information such as usernames and passwords remain private, while still enabling the external systems to interact with Salesforce data. It supports delegated authorization, meaning a user can authorize a third party to access their Salesforce data under specific conditions, without sharing their login details.

In the context of integrations, when establishing connections between Salesforce and external systems, OAuth plays a crucial role in ensuring that only authenticated applications are permitted to access the data, mitigating risks associated with unauthorized access. This stands in contrast to the other options, which do not accurately describe what OAuth provides in integration scenarios. For instance, directly accessing customer data would compromise the security OAuth is designed to protect, a data visualization tool does not pertain to authentication at all, and there is no specific coding framework strictly associated with OAuth.