Top references
SAML2.0 is an XML based portocol using security tokens containing assertions to pass information about a principal (ex. end user) between a SAML authority (Idp
-Identity provider, for planet labs, it is MS ADFS 2012 R2
), and a SAML consumer (SP
-service provider, for example, plotly On-Prem side authentication). The standrad was ratified as an OASIS standard in 03/2005, which eventually may be replaced by Oauth2 based OpenID.