Identity Federation
A system of trust relationships between organizations that allows users to use their home organization credentials to access partner applications and resources.
What is Identity Federation?
Identity Federation is a system of trust relationships between organizations that enables users from one organization (the home domain) to access applications and resources in another organization (the partner domain) using their home credentials.
Federation relies on:
- Standards: SAML 2.0, OpenID Connect, WS-Federation
- Trust: Certificates and metadata exchanged between IdP and SP
- Assertions: Signed security tokens containing identity and attribute data
- Single Sign-On: Users authenticate once and access multiple partner applications
Federation eliminates the need for separate accounts at each partner organization.
Analogy
Think of identity federation like a passport system. Your home country issues your passport (identity), and other countries accept it at their borders (applications) because of international agreements (trust relationships). You don't need a separate ID card for each country you visit.
Types and Use Cases
- Enterprise Federation: Corporations federate with partners, suppliers, and customers for secure B2B access
- Higher Education: Universities federate to share library resources, research tools, and student services (InCommon, eduGAIN)
- Government: Agencies federate for citizen access to cross-agency services
- Healthcare: Hospitals and clinics federate for shared access to patient records
- Cloud Federation: Organizations federate with cloud providers for workforce access
How it Works
Identity Federation vs Identity Brokerage
Identity Federation
Identity Brokerage
Identity Federation is a direct trust relationship between two organizations
Identity Brokerage uses an intermediary to connect multiple organizations ; Federation is point-to-point; Brokerage is hub-and-spoke ; Federation requires direct metadata exchange; Brokerage manages all connections centrally
Federation is simpler for one-to-one relationships
Brokerage is better for many-to-many
Best Practices for Identity Federation
- Use standards: Always use SAML 2.0 or OpenID Connect - avoid proprietary federation protocols
- Secure metadata exchange: Verify certificates and metadata through secure channels
- Implement attribute release: Only release necessary attributes - minimize data exposure
- Plan for deprovisioning: Ensure partner applications remove access promptly when federation is revoked
- Monitor federation: Log and audit all federated authentication events
How LoginRadius Powers Identity Federation
LoginRadius CIAM platform supports identity federation using SAML 2.0 and OpenID Connect standards. As an IdP, LoginRadius issues assertions for customer access to third-party applications. As an SP, LoginRadius accepts federated authentication from enterprise IdPs (Okta, Azure AD, Ping) for administrative access.
Resources
FAQs
SSO allows users to authenticate once and access multiple applications within the same organization. Federation extends SSO across organizations - a user from Company A can access applications at Company B using their Company A credentials. SSO is intra-organizational; Federation is inter-organizational.
The main standards are: (1) SAML 2.0 - XML-based, mature, widely used in enterprise federation, (2) OpenID Connect (OIDC) - JSON-based, modern, better for mobile and consumer scenarios, (3) WS-Federation - Microsoft-centric, used with Active Directory Federation Services. SAML 2.0 is the most common for B2B federation.
LoginRadius supports identity federation through SAML 2.0 and OpenID Connect. Our platform can act as both an Identity Provider (issuing assertions for your customers to access third-party apps) and a Service Provider (accepting assertions from enterprise IdPs like Okta or Azure AD for employee access).