Summary

This chapter discussed the IAM service. You saw how authentication and authorization form the basis of IAM and discovered some of the best practices for using IAM. You completed an exercise of creating a group in IAM, creating a new user, adding a policy to that user, and then adding that user to the previously created group.

You also saw how STS could be used to create temporary security credentials, which are more secure than providing long-term security credentials for both users and roles. Finally, you reviewed AWS IAM Identity Center and how it can help manage user accounts across many accounts in an AWS organization and provide consolidated access to those same users to SaaS applications outside of your AWS environment.

In Chapter 14, Working with Access Policies, you will examine the policies and constructs used in IAM policies, service control policies, and other policies.