AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a web service that enables AWS customers to manage user access to AWS resources. IAM makes it easy to create and manage AWS users, groups, roles and permissions to allow and deny access to AWS services and resources.
What is AWS Identity and Access Management?
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a web service that helps AWS customers securely control access to AWS resources. With IAM, you can centrally manage users, security credentials such as access keys, and permissions that control which AWS resources users can access.
Some key capabilities of IAM include:
- Centralized control of user access - You can create and manage AWS users and groups, and use permissions to allow and deny access to AWS resources like EC2 instances, S3 buckets, etc.
- Shared access to AWS accounts - You can give users secure access to your AWS resources without having to share long-term credentials.
- Granular permissions - You can manage granular permissions for different resources using IAM policies.
- Secure access to AWS resources for applications - You can use IAM roles to manage credentials for applications running on EC2 instances that need to securely access AWS resources.
- Multifactor authentication - Add an extra layer of security to your account by enabling MFA for privileged users.
- Identity federation - You can enable identity federation to allow single sign-on (SSO) access to the AWS Management Console or access to the AWS APIs, without needing to create IAM users.
- PCI DSS Compliance - IAM supports PCI DSS compliance by providing logging and monitoring capabilities over access and use of AWS resources.
With its flexible access control and security features, IAM is a key service to securely control access to AWS resources for users, applications and services.