Identity and access management (IAM) is a framework that enables organizations to ensure only the right people and devices have access to the right applications, resources, and systems at the right time. IAM encompasses the various policies, services, and technologies that allow organizations to verify every user’s identity and level of access at all times. This verification can be conducted by a single product or spread across multiple processes, programs, and cloud services that provide admins with control and visibility over an individual’s access rights. To effectively manage access, organizations need to authenticate that a user is trustworthy and then authorize the level of access they should have. What are authentication and authorization? Authentication is the process of confirming that a user is who they say they are. A user’s identity is most commonly verified through authentication factors like: Something they know: A knowledge factor that only the user should.