An identity provider is a system entity that creates, maintains, and manages identity information while providing authentication services to relying applications within a network. For example, A SAML identity provider is a system entity that issues authentication assertions in conjunction with a single sign-on (SSO) profile of the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML).

To name a few benefits, identity providers:

• Offer user authentication as a service
• Employ single sign-on (SSO) capabilities, allowing easy access to other websites
• Facilitate connections between cloud-computing resources and users, thereby decreasing the need to re-authenticate when using mobile and roaming applications
• Save end users the need to repeatedly create and maintain new passwords