Sun Java System Access Manager 7.1 Federation and SAML Administration Guide

Identity Provider

An identity provider is a service provider that specializes in providing authentication services. As the administrating service for authentication, an identity provider also maintains and manages identity information. Authentication by an identity provider is honored by all service providers with whom the identity provider is affiliated. This term is used when defining an entity of this sort specific to the Liberty Identity Federation Framework as discussed in Liberty Identity Federation Framework.