Understanding IAM Users and Credentials - An AWS Solution Architect Guide

Introduction:
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a feature of your AWS account that is provided at no additional charge. It allows you to securely control access to AWS services and resources for your users.

Importance:
Understanding IAM is crucial because it helps to manage users, groups, roles, and their corresponding level of access to AWS Console. It also centrally manages your AWS environment’s security, providing essential features like multi-factor authentication for a robust and secure environment.

What is it?:
IAM Users are entities with unique security credentials that are used to access AWS Services. These users can be people, applications or servers.

How it Works:
IAM users can be created under your AWS account, and you can assign them individual security credentials, such as access keys, passwords, and multi-factor authentication devices, or request temporary security credentials to provide users access to AWS services and resources.

Exam Tips:
Answering Questions on IAM Users and Credentials:
Remember the following key points while answering questions concerning IAM:
- IAM is universal and does not apply to a specific region.
- Root user is the first user, it possesses complete access by default.
- In IAM, new users have no permissions when they are first created.
- We can attach and detach IAM policies from IAM users, groups, and roles. If a policy is attached to a group, that policy is inherited by the users in that group.
- IAM Roles allow applications to borrow security credentials.
- IAM supports identity federation for delegated access to the AWS Management Console or AWS APIs.
- IAM is essential for follow security best practices in AWS.