AWS-IAM (Identity Access Management)

• Allows you to manage users and their level of access to the AWS Console. 

• It is used to set users, permissions and roles. It allows you to grant access to the different parts of the aws platform.

• PAM and IAM are not the same. Whilst PAM protects users with privileged access to sensitive data, IAM deals with a business's everyday users.

• Users - End users

• Groups - Collection of users under one set of permissions (Admins, HR, etc.)

• Roles - Create roles and assign them to AWS resources (i.e. giving EC2 instance role for writing to EC2)

• Policies - Document that defines one or more permissions. Apply policies to users, groups, and roles

• Centralized control of AWS account

• Shared access to AWS account

• Granular permissions

• Identify Federation (AD, FB, LinkedIn, etc.)

• Multifactor Authentication

• Provide temporary access for users/devices/services

• Allows you to setup password rotation policy

• Integrates with many services

• Supports PCI DSS Compliance