Mastering the Skies: Top Five Dimensions in Navigating Cloud Computing Identity and Access Management

IAM Dimension: Authentication and Authorization

Authentication forms the crux of the access system. On a high level, authentication is the process of verifying the identity of a user. Once the identity is authenticated, authorization is the next step, which defines what data the user can access.

Cloud environments, particularly public ones, face higher risks of authentication breaches, given that access can be made virtually from anywhere. Multi-factor authentication is rapidly becoming a common solution to this problem, where users are required to provide multiple evidences of their identity – such as something they know (e.g., a password), something they have (e.g., an ID card), and something they are (e.g., fingerprint).