This white paper introduces identity federation and the predominant standard, Security Assertion Markup Language, or SAML, to a non-technical audience. The second section, Security in the Brave New (Web) World, describes why standards like SAML are necessary for implementing scalable, secure federated identity across organizational boundaries. The third section, SAML Identity Federation Use Cases, highlights typical use cases, and the fourth section, WS-Federation or SAML?, examines the advantages and disadvantages of the leading SAML competitor. The paper then concludes with a description of Ping Identity products.