What is the main goal of Identity and Access Management (IAM) in cloud environments?

The main goal of Identity and Access Management (IAM) in cloud environments is managing user identities. IAM is a framework that ensures the right individuals have the appropriate access to technology resources. In cloud computing, organizations face unique challenges in managing identities due to the distributed and scalable nature of cloud services. The effective management of user identities and their access permissions is critical for maintaining security, compliance, and operational efficiency.

IAM enables organizations to control who can access what resources in the cloud, enforce authentication and authorization policies, and streamline onboarding and offboarding processes for users. This is essential not only for protecting sensitive data and applications but also for ensuring that users can access the resources they need to perform their jobs effectively. By managing identities securely, organizations can mitigate the risks associated with unauthorized access and potential security breaches.

In contrast, the other options focus on different aspects of IT management that, while important, do not align with the core functions of IAM. Protecting physical assets relates to physical security measures, monitoring network traffic is part of security monitoring and network management, and optimizing resource allocation deals with resource management rather than identity management.