AWS IAM vs. AWS IAM Identity Center: What’s the Difference?

With organizations moving critical workloads to the cloud, solidly built Identity and Access Management (IAM) is central to security, compliance, and operational efficiency.

Currently, the cloud market is highly dominated by AWS, with a record high of 41.5% in 2024. One of the reasons goes to the ever secure identity solutions offered by the company.

AWS provides two major services in this area: AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) and AWS IAM Identity Center (formerly AWS SSO).

While both help secure your AWS environment, choosing the right tool and understanding its integration potential can streamline governance, accelerate onboarding, and reduce risks for businesses of any scale.

Before we dive into the AWS IAM solutions, let’s get a brief overview of IAM.

IAM: A Brief Synopsis

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a cybersecurity framework of policies, processes, and technologies that ensures the right individuals, devices, or applications have appropriate access to an organization's resources, such as data, networks, and systems.

IAM operates in two core phases: authentication, which verifies a user's identity through methods like passwords, biometrics, or Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), and authorization, which grants specific permissions based on roles, job functions, or attributes like security clearance.

Organizations use IAM to manage user lifecycles, from onboarding and provisioning access to offboarding, while enforcing least-privilege principles to minimize risks from insiders or external threats.​

Key components of IAM include Single Sign-On (SSO) for identity assurance and access across apps. It also comprises Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) for policy enforcement, and auditing tools for compliance with regulations like GDPR or HIPAA.

By centralizing identity data in directories and supporting federation with external providers, IAM boosts efficiency, reduces administrative overhead, and strengthens overall security posture.

To know more about IAM, get in touch with the miniOrange IAM experts, and we will be happy to help you out.

Decoding the AWS Terminologies

A quick refresher on the key AWS identity components:

1. Account

This is a container for resources, which acts as an IAM boundary with its own account ID and billing. It helps establish a relation with AWS to manage and access cloud resources like storage, virtual servers, and databases.

Also, every account is isolated, and a unique email ID and payment method are needed to create an account.

2. Organization

An AWS organization creates and manages all accounts centrally, along with securely sharing resources across accounts. It also enables policies and compliance, and handles billings through a single payment method.

3. User

An AWS user is an identity created by an admin to grant specific permissions to manage and access AWS resources. It comes with a username and password.

4. Federated User

An AWS federated user is an individual who logs into an AWS account using external Identity Provider (IdP) credentials through an external source like Active Directory (AD) or Google. The individual accesses resources based on a predefined role.

5. Group

A group helps to manage user permissions efficiently. It includes individuals put together, allowing administrators to assign permissions to the entire set at once for streamlined management.

Users added to the group automatically inherit all permissions attached to it, eliminating the need to configure access individually.

6. Role

In AWS, a role comprises an identity with a set of specific permissions that are temporarily assumed by users, applications, or services to access AWS resources.

When a role is given to an individual or an entity, temporary credentials are given instead of permanent ones, which reduces security risks.

7. Permission Set

Permission sets refer to the level of access that groups or users have to an AWS account. They encompass customer-managed policies, AWS managed policies, permission boundaries, and inline policies.

What is AWS IAM?

AWS IAM uses policies, tools, protocols, and processes to manage identities and control access to AWS resources. Admins are allowed to manage permissions to systems.

Key purposes of AWS IAM are:

• Managing access or actions permitted to a user. These could mean viewing, creating, changing, or deleting files.
• Controlling which users can access systems, what they can do with them, and when they can access them.
• Following a granular approach in providing permissions and access controls.
• Segmenting users based on their roles.

What are the Types of IAM Policies?

There are two core policies, and they are as follows:

• Managed Policies: These policies are standalone, reusable, and can be attached to multiple groups, users, or roles, and they’re managed centrally.
• Inline Policies: These policies are directly embedded into a single identity (role, group, or user) and are not transferable or reusable.

What are the Features of AWS IAM?

Here are the major features of the AWS Identity and Access Management:

1. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

A Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) solution in IAM adds a second verification step on top of a username and password, such as a one-time code from an authenticator app or hardware token.

This greatly reduces the risk of account compromise from stolen or phished passwords, because an attacker would also need access to the second factor to sign in.

2. Password Policy

IAM lets you define and enforce account-wide password policies for IAM users, such as minimum length, required character types, password expiration, and reuse prevention.

Strong password policies help standardize secure password practices across teams and make it harder for attackers to guess or brute-force credentials.

3. Granular Permissions

With IAM policies, you can define very fine-grained permissions that control exactly which actions a user, role, or group can perform on which resources, under which conditions.

This enables least-privilege access, where identities only get the exact permissions they need, reducing the blast radius of any mistake or compromise.

What is AWS IAM Identity Center?

AWS IAM Identity Center or AWS SSO offers admins a unified experience for customizing, defining, and assigning fine-grained access. It provides workforce users a portal to check cloud apps and AWS accounts that are assigned to them.

The AWS IAM Identity Center is built on top of AWS IAM for simplified access management on varied apps, accounts, and SAML-based cloud apps.

It offers integration with identity providers like miniOrange, Azure AD, Okta, and more, enabling enterprise-wide user lifecycle automation.

What are the features of AWS IAM Identity Center?

Here are the main features of the IAM Identity Center:

1. Application Assignments for SAML Apps

It supports Single Sign-On (SSO) to many business applications through SAML 2.0 integration, enabling users to access assigned apps using their existing credentials without separate logins.

2. Workforce Identities

You can create workforce identities (users/groups) within IAM Identity Center, or connect to existing groups or users within IdPs such as Microsoft Active Directory, Okta, Ping Identity, and Azure AD.

3. Multi-Account Permissions

It leverages permission sets that centrally manage and assign permissions across all AWS accounts within your AWS Organizations.

IAM Identity Center creates the necessary IAM roles and attaches policies in each account, removing the need for manual setup in individual accounts.

4. AWS Access Portals

IAM Identity Center provides a unified user portal where end-users can sign in once and access all their assigned AWS accounts and applications from a single location. It enhances user experience and reduces password fatigue.

AWS IAM vs. AWS IAM Identity Center

What’s Best for Admins/Architects Implementing IAM in an Organization?

For most scaling organizations, both services are best combined:

• IAM remains fundamental for resource-level policies, roles, and direct programmatic access.
• IAM Identity Center overlays centralized user/group management, security auditing, and cross-account governance, essential for workforce identity and SaaS SSO.​
• Modern Best Practice:
  • Manage your workforce identities in an IdP (such as miniOrange).
  • Connect IdP to AWS IAM Identity Center for federated sign-on and automated SCIM provisioning.
  • Use AWS IAM for deployment/service roles, policies tied to applications, and specific resource access.

How can miniOrange Help?

miniOrange bridges cloud identity management and secure access to AWS:

• Acts as a centralized identity provider for AWS IAM Identity Center.
• Supports SSO, MFA, passwordless login, and Zero Trust.
• SCIM provisioning to automatically create/delete users & groups.
• Pre-built integration with AWS SSO.
• Simplifies multi-cloud identity management.

Connect with us for an expert consultation, and also check out our flexible, yet competitive pricing section for IAM solutions.

Also, don’t forget to sign up for a free trial of our IAM solutions.

Conclusion

IAM and IAM Identity Center aren't rivals; think of them as complementary. IAM is your resource gatekeeper for all workloads. IAM Identity Center brings user simplicity, automation, and strong security at the workforce level.

FAQs

Is AWS IAM being replaced by IAM Identity Center?

No, IAM is essential for resource access. IAM Identity Center adds modern SSO and centralized identity, but both are required for robust security and governance.​

Can I connect miniOrange to AWS IAM Identity Center?

Yes, miniOrange supports SAML/OIDC for single sign-on, plus SCIM provisioning for seamless user/group management in AWS IAM Identity Center.​

Do I need both services in a multi-account AWS setup?

For streamlined administration, cross-account SSO, and advanced provisioning/auditing, using both is recommended.