Describing identity providers, Azure Active Directory, and federated services
As defined in the previous section, the process of authentication verifies that someone is who they say that they are; this is their identity. This section will discuss the role of the identity provider in the process of authentication, where Azure Active Directory fits within this process, and how federated services can play a role for companies to work together, even when using different identity providers.
Identity providers
The process of the validation within the authentication process is completed by the identity provider. The identity provider acts as the source that stores a user's identity and provides the service of validating that identity when authenticating. In traditional on-premises data center infrastructures, the identity provider is Windows Active Directory.
As we have moved to use cloud services for both our business and personal use, we interact with numerous identity providers...
