What is AWS IAM and what are its top alternatives?
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a web service that helps you securely control access to your AWS resources. With IAM, you can manage users, groups, and permissions to allow or deny access to resources within your AWS account. Key features include granular control over access permissions, multi-factor authentication, identity federation, and integration with other AWS services. However, some limitations of AWS IAM include the complexity of managing permissions at scale and the potential for mistakes leading to security vulnerabilities.
Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM): Google Cloud IAM offers centralized access management for GCP resources, with features like granular access control, permissions inheritance, and audit logging. Pros include the integration with other GCP services and simplicity of use, while cons may include the learning curve for those not familiar with Google's cloud platform.
Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD): Azure AD provides identity and access management for Microsoft services, with features like single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, and role-based access control. Pros include seamless integration with Microsoft products and scalability, while cons may include the cost for certain advanced features.
Okta: Okta is a cloud-based identity and access management platform with features like single sign-on, adaptive Multi-Factor Authentication, and lifecycle management. Pros include its ease of integration with diverse applications and strong security features, while cons may involve the cost for small businesses and complexity for larger enterprises.
OneLogin: OneLogin offers cloud-based IAM solutions with features like single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, and user provisioning. Pros include its fast deployment and ease of use, while cons may include limitations in customization for specific use cases.
Auth0: Auth0 provides identity and access management as a service with features like social login, single sign-on, and adaptive authentication. Pros include its extensibility and flexibility in customizing authentication flows, while cons may involve the pricing structure for high-volume usage.
Ping Identity: Ping Identity offers IAM solutions for enterprises with features like single sign-on, authentication policies, and API security. Pros include its strong security capabilities and scalability, while cons may include the complexity of implementing advanced features.
Centrify: Centrify provides privileged access management and identity services for securing enterprise resources. Pros include its focus on Zero Trust security model and compliance with regulations, while cons may involve the learning curve for managing policies and access controls.
ForgeRock: ForgeRock offers a comprehensive identity platform with features like user management, access control, and identity federation. Pros include its open-source foundation and extensibility, while cons may include the complexity of configuring certain advanced features.
IBM Security Identity and Access Management: IBM's IAM solution provides identity services for securing access to resources, with features like access governance, authentication, and identity lifecycle management. Pros include its integration with IBM security tools and compliance capabilities, while cons may include the steep learning curve for configuration and administration.
Keycloak: Keycloak is an open-source identity and access management solution with features like single sign-on, user federation, and social login. Pros include its flexibility and customization options, while cons may involve the need for technical expertise to implement and maintain the solution.
Top Alternatives to AWS IAM
Azure Active DirectoryIt is a comprehensive identity and access management solution that gives you a robust set of capabilities to manage users and groups. You can get the reliability and scalability you need with identity services that work with your on-premises, cloud, or hybrid environment. ...
OktaConnect all your apps in days, not months, with instant access to thousands of pre-built integrations - even add apps to the network yourself. Integrations are easy to set up, constantly monitored, proactively repaired and handle authentication and provisioning. ...
Auth0A set of unified APIs and tools that instantly enables Single Sign On and user management to all your applications. ...
OAuth2It is an authorization framework that enables a third-party application to obtain limited access to an HTTP service, either on behalf of a resource owner by orchestrating an approval interaction between the resource owner and the HTTP service, or by allowing the third-party application to obtain access on its own behalf. ...
TeleportTeleport makes it easy for users to securely access infrastructure and meet the toughest compliance requirements. Teleport replaces shared credentials with short-lived certificates and is completely transparent to client-side tools. ...
HashiCorp BoundarySimple and secure remote access — to any system anywhere based on trusted identity. It enables practitioners and operators to securely access dynamic hosts and services with fine-grained authorization without requiring direct network access. ...
SailPointIt provides enterprise identity governance solutions with on-premises and cloud-based identity management software for the most complex challenges. ...
AWS Service CatalogAWS Service Catalog allows IT administrators to create, manage, and distribute catalogs of approved products to end users, who can then access the products they need in a personalized portal. Administrators can control which users have access to each application or AWS resource to enforce compliance with organizational business policies. AWS Service Catalog allows your organization to benefit from increased agility and reduced costs because end users can find and launch only the products they need from a catalog that you control. ...
AWS IAM alternatives & related posts
- Backed by Microsoft Azure6
- Closed source3
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- API Access Management - oAuth2 as a service4
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Hey all, We're currently weighing up the pros & cons of using Firebase Authentication vs something more OTB like Auth0 or Okta to manage end-user access management for a consumer digital content product. From what I understand so far, Something like Firebase Auth would require more dev effort but is likely to cost less overall, whereas OTB, you have a UI-based console which makes config by non-technical business users easier to manage. Does anyone else have any intuitions or experiences they could share on this, please? Thank you!
If these three are your options, I would recommend going with Auth0. They have all functionality available as developer API (Okta e.g. not) so you can manage your instance with Infrastructure as code and can also easily add functionalities relatively easily with the API. They are also really powerful if we're talking about ABAC (Attribute based access control). You can also enrich your access token with custom claims from your MongoDB, that can be probably really useful, as you said that you're dealing with multi tenancy.
We're using Auth0 in combination with Fauna Fauna is a database, so it would challenge you're mongodb. But Faunadb is the first database that implemented a full end user ABAC system directly in the database. (And also a lot easier than the ABAC systems from Okta or Auth0). This helps us, to use Auth0 only as identity platform and doing all the authorization with enriched claims over Fauna. With that you can skip in a lot of the cases you're backend, and you can request directly from the frontend your database (Blazing fast). Also, you can replace in some years Auth0 a lot easier with some upcoming cheaper (Auth0 was bought by Okta for a hilarious price) and "easy to use" passwordless identity provider like Passage.id
Auth0
- JSON web token69
- Integration with 20+ Social Providers31
- It's a universal solution20
- SDKs20
- Amazing Documentation15
- Heroku Add-on11
- Enterprise support8
- Great Sample Repos7
- Extend platform with "rules"7
- Azure Add-on4
- Easy integration, non-intrusive identity provider3
- Passwordless3
- It can integrate seamlessly with firebase2
- Great documentation, samples, UX and Angular support2
- Polished2
- On-premise deployment2
- Will sign BAA for HIPAA-compliance1
- MFA1
- Active Directory support1
- Springboot1
- SOC21
- SAML Support1
- Great support1
- OpenID Connect (OIDC) Support1
- Pricing too high (Developer Pro)15
- Poor support7
- Rapidly changing API4
- Status page not reflect actual status4
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Hi Otensia! I'd definitely recommend using the skills you've already got and building with JavaScript is a smart way to go these days. Most platform services have JavaScript/Node SDKs or NPM packages, many serverless platforms support Node in case you need to write any backend logic, and JavaScript is incredibly popular - meaning it will be easy to hire for, should you ever need to.
My advice would be "don't reinvent the wheel". If you already have a skill set that will work well to solve the problem at hand, and you don't need it for any other projects, don't spend the time jumping into a new language. If you're looking for an excuse to learn something new, it would be better to invest that time in learning a new platform/tool that compliments your knowledge of JavaScript. For this project, I might recommend using Netlify, Vercel, or Google Firebase to quickly and easily deploy your web app. If you need to add user authentication, there are great examples out there for Firebase Authentication, Auth0, or even Magic (a newcomer on the Auth scene, but very user friendly). All of these services work very well with a JavaScript-based application.
Hey all, We're currently weighing up the pros & cons of using Firebase Authentication vs something more OTB like Auth0 or Okta to manage end-user access management for a consumer digital content product. From what I understand so far, Something like Firebase Auth would require more dev effort but is likely to cost less overall, whereas OTB, you have a UI-based console which makes config by non-technical business users easier to manage. Does anyone else have any intuitions or experiences they could share on this, please? Thank you!
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As the access to our global REST-API "Charon" is bound to OAuth2, we use Keycloak inside Quarkus to authenticate and authorize users of our API. It is not possible to perform any un-authenticated requests against this API, so we wanted to make really sure that the authentication/authorization component is absolutely reliable and tested. We found those attributes within Keycloak, so we used it.
My teammates and I are arguing on which library to use for our local and social authentication in our express app between OAuth2 and Passport. I went for Passport cause I personally like it, and it seems easier to implement with good docs, but some of my teammates think it's less secure than OAuth2. So any advice please would be appreciated. Thanks 🙏🏻
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