Identity & Access — processes and technologies for managing user accounts, access, and role-based permissions across cloud and on-premises systems. It is a critical component of security as it controls who has access to resources and how that access is granted.

Key aspects of account, project, and user management:

Account Management:

• Account management systems enable the creation, modification, and deletion of accounts, ensuring access is granted only to verified users.
• Includes processes like authentication setup (passwords, multi-factor authentication) and session management to protect data.

Project and Resource Management:

• Allows grouping accounts and resources into projects for logical access control.
• Segregating resources by projects makes it easy to assign access rights and restrict permissions based on responsibility and needs.

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC):

• Uses roles to allocate resource access, minimizing the risk of excessive privileges.
• Policies within roles can restrict access to only the resources necessary for specific tasks.

User and Group Management:

• Enables grouping users with shared access rights.
• Group management streamlines access rights, especially in large organizations with many users.

Audit and Activity Tracking:

• Event logs track user actions and help detect anomalies in resource access.
• Auditing ensures access transparency and aids investigations in case of incidents.

Examples of account and access management use cases:

• Securing Cloud Resources: IAM (Identity and Access Management) in cloud platforms allows administrators to define which users can launch virtual machines, modify security settings, and view data.
• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Enhances account security with two-factor authentication, reducing the risk of compromise.
• Access Segregation: Managing access rights for different departments or projects ensures users can only perform actions appropriate to their organizational roles.