IAM Roles, Policies & Users Explained — With Easy Memory Tricks

AWS IAM — Roles, Users, Groups & Policies Explained

What Is IAM?

AWS Identity & Access Management (IAM) is used to control who can access which AWS resources.

IAM Components

• Users: Individual login accounts
• Groups: Collection of users
• Roles: Temporary permissions for AWS services
• Policies: JSON-based permission documents

Easy Memory Trick

• User = Person
• Group = Team
• Role = Temporary identity
• Policy = Rule book

Security Best Practices

• Enable MFA
• Don’t use root account
• Use least privilege access
• Rotate access keys

Conclusion

IAM ensures secure access to AWS resources and is one of the most important cloud concepts.