Final answer:
In Identity and Access Management, SAML is used to exchange authentication and authorization data between identity providers and service providers, facilitating single sign-on capabilities.
Step-by-step explanation:
In Identity and Access Management, SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) is an XML-based protocol used to exchange authentication and authorization data between an identity provider and a service provider. SAML is widely utilized for enabling single sign-on (SSO), allowing users to access multiple services with a single set of credentials. The way SAML works is that when a user attempts to access a service, the service provider requests a SAML assertion from the user's identity provider. If the user is authenticated, the identity provider sends a SAML assertion back to the service provider, which allows the user to log in. This process ensures that sensitive credentials are not transmitted across the network, hence increasing security.