What is the difference between root users and IAM users and for a software engineering department with multiple SWE, how should the manager handle AWS
1 Answers
There are two different types of users in AWS. You are either the account owner (also known as the root user), or you are an IAM user.
There is only one root user. The root user is required for certain operations, including:
- changing account settings
- changing your support plan
- closing the AWS account
You should not use the root user for everyday tasks.
For a team of software developers, you could assign each person an IAM user but it is better to use identity federation which gives them short-term credentials as needed.
See IAM best practices for a lot more details.
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