In a federated system, what is the resource or system that provides a generic service to the user and is often equivalent to the application they use?

• A. Federated Access
• B. Service Provider (SP)
• C. Access Administrator
• D. User

Answer: (B)

In a federated setup, the service provider is the application or resource that delivers the actual service to the user and is what the user interacts with. The SP relies on the identity provider to confirm who the user is, typically trusting tokens or assertions issued by the IdP to grant access. This separation lets the same user access multiple services across domains without re-authenticating each time. Federated access describes the cross-domain authentication mechanism that makes this possible, not the resource itself. The access administrator is a role that manages permissions, not the service, and the user is the person using the service, not the service itself.