What is the main focus of Identity and Access Management (IAM)?

The primary focus of Identity and Access Management (IAM) is to authenticate users and control access to resources within an organization. This involves ensuring that the right individuals have the appropriate permissions to access specific data and systems while preventing unauthorized access. IAM systems implement various security measures, such as user identification, authentication mechanisms (like passwords, biometrics, and multi-factor authentication), and access controls based on roles or policies.

By managing user identities and access rights effectively, IAM helps protect sensitive information and supports compliance with regulations regarding data privacy and security. This is crucial in environments where multiple users and devices access various cloud resources, making it essential to establish a strong identity and access framework to mitigate security risks.

While the other options may be important in their own right—encryption typically focuses on protecting data in transit, provisioning involves the deployment of resources, and application development pertains to creating software—none of these directly align with the core premise of managing user identities and access controls like IAM does.