Google Cloud → AWS and Azure
AWS and Azure equivalents of Workload Identity Federation for GKE
The closest AWS equivalent of Google Cloud Workload Identity Federation for GKE is EKS Pod Identity (and IRSA); on Azure, Microsoft Entra Workload ID for AKS.
About Workload Identity Federation for GKE
| Provider | Google Cloud |
|---|---|
| Status | Generally available |
| What it is | Lets Kubernetes service accounts act as IAM principals, so Pods call Google Cloud APIs without service account keys. |
| Documentation | docs.cloud.google.com |
| Pricing | No separate pricing page |
Mappings (1)
| Capability | AWS | Match (GCP vs AWS) | Azure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pod-level cloud identity | EKS Pod Identity (and IRSA) | Direct match | Microsoft Entra Workload ID for AKS |
Pod-level cloud identity Direct match
EKS Pod Identity and IRSA map to Workload Identity Federation for GKE, which lets Kubernetes service accounts act as IAM principals.
- You grant IAM roles directly to the Kubernetes service account principal, or let it impersonate a Google service account.