Types Of SAML Providers

Identity Providers (IdP)

• They are responsible for user authentication and the assertion of user identities to service providers (SPs) like AWS. In simple words, the IdPs verify user credentials and generate SAML assertions containing user information and permissions.

• Then, it digitally signs these assertions to ensure their integrity. Thus, the entire identity management becomes centralized due to which the security is improved. Examples of the IdPs include Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), Okta, and OneLogin.

Service Providers (SP)

• Service Providers (SPs) are the SAML entities that host and provide access to specific resources or services. For example, AWS itself is a service provider that is based on relying on SAML assertions. It receives these assertions from identity providers (IdPs) to grant users appropriate access.

• Then, it signs the SAML assertions, extracts user information, and uses this data to authorize access to the requested resources. Examples of Service Provider-induced AWS services, such as Amazon S3 or EC2 instances.

Are you looking to enhance the security of your AWS Environment? If it is so, SAML can be a good choice. This article covers all the information about the SAML including its working and advantages. By the time you reach the end of this blog, you will gain a clear understanding of the SAML in your Cloud Environment.

When organizations provide multiple services, the users face difficulties in managing too many credentials for the different services. But what if they can access all the services or applications with a single credential? Wouldn’t it be efficient? It is a time-saving and efficient approach to provide services to the feature. This approach is termed a Single-Sign-On (SSO) feature and SAML is one of the most popular frameworks for this. In this article, we will learn how the SAML provides authentication features in the cloud environment.