What is an Identity Provider (IdP) ?

The identity provider (IdP) or service provider manages a local account for the user with the identity information while providing authentication services to applications based on a distributed federation or network. The identity provider is a federation partner that guarantees the identity of users.

The identity provider authenticates a user and transmits an authentication token to the service provider. Third-party applications, such as web applications, outsource the user authentication step to an approved identity provider so it goes through a federated identity.

An identity provider is essentially a trusted system that authenticates users for the benefit of other unaffiliated websites or digital resources.

We have all met identity providers before. It is usually presented in the form of "Connecting with...". For example, Google and Facebook acting as a trusted identity provider (TPI) and authenticating the user's identity on behalf of the online site.

All applications linked to a federated provider offer this identity provider service. This authentication is not a data transfer but a trusted service. He knows nothing about the user but the identity provider tells him that the user exists.

An identity provider has different advantages:

• Avoids the claim of an account and therefore a new password.

• Data is not shared by the identity provider.

In the next few years we will see this deploy even more the identity provider.

 

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://blog.economie-numerique.net/2019/05/25/what-is-an-identity-provider-idp/

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