IAM

Identity and access management: the identities, permissions, and policies that determine who can do what.

An example you can picture

A deployment job receives permission to update one application rather than full administrator access to a cloud account. Temporary credentials can reduce reliance on stored long-lived keys.

The distinction that matters

Authentication establishes identity. Authorisation decides which actions that identity can take. Troubleshooting access requires checking both.

Put it into practice

For one read-only task in a cloud lab, identify the calling identity, the intended action, and the target resource. Explain the smallest permission scope that would support the task.

Connect the ideas: secret and environment variable. For the bigger picture, read the related learning guide.

Reference

Read the primary documentation for the underlying concept and further detail.