Google Cloud → AWS and Azure
AWS and Azure equivalents of Identity and Access Management (IAM)
The closest AWS equivalents of Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM) are AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) and AWS Resource Access Manager (RAM); on Azure, Microsoft Entra ID and Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC).
About Identity and Access Management (IAM)
| Provider | Google Cloud |
|---|---|
| Status | Generally available |
| What it is | Allow policies that grant roles to principals on resources in the organization, folder, and project hierarchy. |
| Documentation | docs.cloud.google.com |
| Pricing | No separate pricing page |
Mappings (2)
| Capability | AWS | Match (GCP vs AWS) | Azure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud identity and access management | AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) | Direct match | Microsoft Entra ID, Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC) |
| Share resources across accounts | AWS Resource Access Manager (RAM) | Partial match | Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC) |
Cloud identity and access management Direct match
AWS IAM maps to Google Cloud IAM: allow policies grant predefined or custom roles to principals on resources, and deny policies set guardrails.
- Policies attach to resources in the hierarchy (organization, folder, project, resource) and are inherited; there are no identity-based policy documents like AWS.
- User identities come from Cloud Identity, Google Workspace, or Workforce Identity Federation, not from IAM itself.
Share resources across accounts Partial match
AWS RAM has no counterpart because Google Cloud shares resources by granting IAM roles to principals from other projects; networks are shared with Shared VPC.
- Projects aren't security boundaries for sharing the way AWS accounts are; IAM grants work across projects in an organization.