Identity and access management (IAM) helps users securely access and manage AWS resources and services. IAM helps and aids users in securely controlling access by creating users and groups, assigning specific permissions and policies to specific users, setting up multi-factor authentication for additional security, and much more. 

This article will cover the fundamentals of AWS IAM, its key features, and some unique benefits to provide you with a bird’s eye view of AWS Identity and access management (IAM). 

One of the biggest roadblocks to cloud adoption by businesses and companies is cloud security scrutiny. AWS IAM addresses this problem by following a granular approach while granting permissions and providing access in the cloud environment. It essentially means that IAM enables its users to control access to AWS service APIs and specific resources. AWS IAM also gives its users the option to control who can use their resources and in which ways. All this and many other features undeniably make using AWS extremely secure. 

How Does AWS IAM Work?

A typical IAM workflow consists of the following elements:

Principal – An entity that can perform actions on AWS resources. It can be a user, group, role or application.

Authentication: The process of verifying the principle of trying to use an AWS resource.

Request: The principal sends a request is sent to AWS by the principal specifying what actions to perform and what resources to use. 

Authorization: IAM authorizes requests by matching all parts by a relevant matching policy. AWS approves all the actions after authentication and authorization. 

Actions: A mix of activities view, create, edit or delete a resource.

Resources: An entity that you can work with or work on to satisfy the business need.

To put it into simple words, we have listed below some core functionalities of Identity and Access Management Tools 

Manage user identities

IAM tools can be used as a single repository or directory to create, modify, delete users or even integrate with other directories if need be. Identity and access management tools can also be used to create special access for particular purposes for users. 

Provisioning/de-provisioning users

Organizations can use IAM to specify which tools and access levels to give to what users as per the business requirements. IAM tools enable the IT departments to grant access and set users’ provisions by role, departments, or other groupings variable as per the business requirements. IAM also allows your organization to quickly remove ex-employees’ access to ensure provisioning also works in reverse.

Authenticating users

IAM system enables user authentication by confirming that they are who they say they are. The system achieves this feat through authentication like multi-factor authentication (MFA) and, preferably, adaptive authentication.

Authorizing users

Access Management in IAM ensures that the system grants the right users access to tools and the same levels as per their entitlement. The system can also divide the users into groups or roles so if they require similar privileges.

Reporting

IAM tools regularly generate reports on critical actions taken and done like login time, systems access, and type of authentication on the platform. It helps ensure compliance and mitigate security risks. 

Single Sign-On

Single Sign-On tools in IAM enable users to authenticate themselves only through one portal instead of using many different resources. Once authenticated, the IAM system acts as a single source of identifier for the other resources available to the user, removing the requirement for the user to remember several passwords.

Some Key features of IAM

IAM secures all your AWS services and resources, and the best thing about AWS IAM is that it is entirely free of cost. AWS account offers an IAM feature at no additional charge. Now, let’s move on to some other nifty features of IAM. 

• Authentication – IAM authenticates resources, people, services, and apps within an AWS account, which means that IAM allows the creation and management of different identities such as users, groups, and roles.

• Authorization – IAM provides access management through two primary components: Policies and Permissions. 

• Permissions are a set of specific rules. Each policy is unique as they grant specific permissions that cover various use-cases. On the other hand, Permissions enable users to perform actions on AWS resources and services.

• Permissions follow a granular approach – With the help of IAM, you can fine-tune the process of granting permissions as per your business needs. You are in total control of which permissions you want to give to what teams/users. 

• Shared Access to AWS account – Organizations with multiple AWS accounts can now share access between them without needing to share their credentials by simplifying multi-account access within one organization.

• Identity federation: This feature in AWS IAM allows you to seamlessly combine access to your AWS account with other identity providers such as G Suite etc. 

Why IAM?

AWS IAM helps IT administrators manage AWS user identities and their varied access to AWS resources. With the help of IAM, AWS users can be created and assigned individual security credentials (e.g. passphrases, SSH keys, MFA), granted permission to access AWS, or removed at any time.

In the process of doing this, organizations have granular control over their AWS resources, different levels of access to it, and the actions authorized users can perform on these resources.

It essentially results in a more secure and efficient environment for AWS users to use AWS resources. With a plethora of fully-featured resources, it makes total sense to have the ability to manage access to them to ensure safety and maximum optimization. 

IAM Implementation Strategy 

Ideally, IAM Solutions should have zero-trust principles such as least privilege access and identity-based security policies.

• Central identity management

Zero trust principles manage access to resources at the initial identity level, meaning you have a centralized managed system of identities. It also means that you can easily synchronize your IAM with other user directories.  

• Secure access

IAM should confirm the Identity of those who are logging in. It implicates the usage of MFA or a combination of MFA and adaptive authentication to consider the context of the login attempt, i.e. Time, Place, IP address etc. 

• Policy-based control

The system gives access and authorization to users to perform the task they are required to do and no more access. The system grants access to resources as per the role’s requirement, no more, no less. These policies ensure that resources are always secured no matter who accesses them.

• Zero-Trust Policy

Zero-Trust means that organizations do not trust anyone automatically who is trying to access their network, machines, IP addresses, etc. Instead, they treat every user and device as a potential threat and assess the risk first by verifying their identities. 

• Secured privileged accounts

Accounts created in access management are not equals. Each account follows provisions that declare that they have specific access to resources as per their roles. The system gives access to privileged resources an extra layer of security and support to act as a gatekeeper for the organization.  

• Training and support

All the necessary support and training are provided to users depending on what products they engage with, including users and administrators – and often provide customer service for the long-term health of your IAM installation and its users.

Summing it up

AWS is the biggest cloud solution provider in the world for a reason. AWS identity and access management have rolled out several measures to provide maximum security to ensure its superiority, and IAM is one of the most important ones. 

With all its amazing features and unique benefits it provides, it is a little overwhelming, and the learning coverage around IAM lacks the gravity it deserves. We aim to help users like yourself get the most out of topics powered by crisp and to-the-point content through our blogs and article series.

Author – Kartik Bansal

Reactide  

Reactide is a desktop program that incorporates a simulator for live reloading and rapid prototyping of React components and is a popular tool in React. 

It features a custom browser simulator as well as an integrated Node server as a cross-platform application. As a result, a React project can be created by simply clicking a React JSX file. 

It includes features like hot module reloading, streamlined configurations, and component visualization that are extremely useful. While coding in Reactide, you can see a live representation of the architecture of your React app. So, if you use Reactide to keep track of changes in the app architecture, editing or upgrading your React app is unlikely to go wrong. 

Storybook  

Another open-source tool is Storybook. It makes it easier to create and write UI components and pages. Visual component coding is a constant back-and-forth between code and the webpage. With their UI editor, Storybook makes this process much convenient and is thus one of the best tools for React. While developing each visual component, you can inspect and interact with it for increased productivity and a better overall process.  

It has a Sandbox Storybook for developing UIs in isolation, mocking difficult-to-reach use cases, documenting use cases as stories, and automating testing. It also has Built-in filters that prevent deviations. 

React Developer Tool 

React Developers Tools are the most popular and user-friendly React tools in our list of Top trending tools in React for accelerating development. It is an open-source React JS library that inspects a React tree, including props, component hierarchy, state, and more. You can also investigate how one component affects another. These debugging tools are extremely useful and are completely open-source. 

It includes full react hook support, allowing you to use react functionality without creating a class. Its filter mechanisms make it easier to navigate deeper into nested hierarchies. 

It can even assist you in observing and noting an app’s performance. It is a must-have for your react development if you genuinely want to create an app that stands out from the crowd. 

Create React App             

For any new React project, the Create React App is the best place to start and is one of the Top trending tools in React. With only one command, you can get your React app up and running. This react tool will take care of everything, whether it is selecting the proper module or constructing the project structure. As a result, developers will spend less time configuring it and will be able to use it with any backend language. 

With a single command, you can get your React app up and running. There are no build configurations required. You do not have to be concerned with the best project structure or which support modules to include; Just execute the following command: 

                                                         npx create-react-app my-app 

BIT  

Bit, designed by Jonathan Saring is an open-source, and one of the most popular react developer tools on the market. It allows you to quickly develop and share react components with the help of Bit. 

After Bit has verified your react components, you can share them with other developers using an online platform and a command-line program. You can also search and download components created by others and render them to fit your specific project on the internet platform. In a nutshell, Bit’s third-party marketplace lets you shop for third-party components. You may even change the component and see a preview of it using Bit, which allows you to go over several components and choose the one that best suits your project making it a popular tool for React. 

React Sights 

React Sight is one of the best React development tools that aid with react inspection. It displays the hierarchy of your app’s components in real-time time. You can easily track the relationships between components with a tree-like flow chart of your app’s architecture. Additionally, when you hover the cursor over a component, you can see its current state and properties. 

Also, after installing the Chrome extension, make sure to enable access to file URLs. 

 React Bootstrap 

React Bootstrap is a tool that combines the benefits of both Bootstrap and React while eliminating their respective Individual limitations. It is a well-known CSS framework react dev tool that many people use. It is a collection of CSS classes and JavaScript functions that allow you to create stunning user interfaces with any of those technologies without having to be a pro. 

The JS portions of React Bootstrap have been rewritten to ensure compatibility with React. As a result, you can now use their components the same way that you would use React components. 

React Bootstrap makes it incredibly simple to get started with a React app project. It is simple to install using a package manager, and it ensures that your app’s UI is clean. 

Wrapping up 

React has grown at a breakneck pace since it was introduced by Facebook. However, as popularity grows, the challenge for developers in creating larger apps becomes more difficult. Every year, the React developer tools community grows, and a new tool is introduced to the list of best tools for React. 

There are many more great tools available for React developers; these are just a few of our favorites that are widely used in react development. We hope these Top trending tools in React should make it easier for you to create, manage, and debug apps. Good luck  

Since Hadoop uses a distributed computing model to process the Big Data and thus we can use Hadoop for Banking and Financial Sector. It also provides lots of features that improve its power. Hadoop provides Low Cost, Fault Tolerance, Scalability, Speed, Data Locality, High Availability, etc. The Hadoop Ecosystem is also very large and provides lots of other tools as well that work on top of Hadoop and makes it highly featured. 

What are the key features of Hadoop to use it for banking and financial sector? 

• Reliable– Fail Safe technology that prevents loss of data even in an event of hardware failure. 
• Powerful– unique storage method based on distributed file system resulting in faster data processing. 
• Scalable– stores and distributes datasets to operate in parallel, allowing businesses to run applications on thousands of nodes. 

• Cost-effective– runs on commodity machines & network 
• Simple and flexible APIs– enables a large ecosystem of solution providers such as log processing, recommendation systems, data warehousing, fraud detection, etc. 

How is Hadoop revolutionizing the Banking & Finance Industry? 

It is the banking sector that secures our money, but it is Apache Hadoop that secures the unstructured data of those banks and is used for industrial purposes. The banking and financial firms have got a huge amount of unstructured data that only Hadoop has the capacity to store in streams. Many banks use Hadoop technology, which gives rooted analysis to improve the security team and protect our investments and savings. 

For the last two decades, the banking sector has suffered drastic changes due to the security of the deposit they keep holding in their big and strong lockers. Thus, in order to avoid those crises and move towards efficiencies and fraud detection, fast finding and a high-level guard is a must. Hence, the marketing and financial domains are running towards Apache Hadoop for high encryption and deep analysis with 100 percent correct statistics. 

Source – Hortonworks 

How is it used in banking and finance? 

The reason for Hadoop’s success in the banking and finance domain is its ability to address various issues faced by the financial industry at minimal cost and time. Despite the various benefits of Hadoop, applying it to a particular problem needs due diligence. Some of the scenarios in which Hadoop is used for the banking and financial industry are: 

Fraud Detection 

Hadoop addresses most common industry challenges like fraud, financial crimes and data breaches effectively. By analyzing point of sale, authorization, and transactions, and other points, banks can identify and mitigate fraud. Big Data also helps in picking up unusual patterns and alerting banks of the same, while also drastically reducing the time and resources required to complete these tasks. 

Risk Management 

Assess risks accurately using Big Data Solutions. Hadoop gives a complete and accurate view of risk and impact, enabling firms to make informed decisions by analysing transactional data to determine risk based on market behaviour, scoring customers, and potential clients. 

Data Storage and Security 

Protection, easy storage, and access to financial data are the optimal needs of banks and finance firms. While Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) provides scalable and reliable data storage designed to span large clusters of commodity servers, MapReduce processes each node in parallel, transferring only the package code for that node which is one of the greatest advantages of using Hadoop for Banking and Financial Sector. This means information is stored in more than one cluster but with additional safety to provide a better and safer data storage option. 

Analysis 

Banks need to analyze unstructured data residing in various sources like social media profiles, emails, calls, complaint logs, discussion forums, etc. as well as through traditional sources like transactional data, cash, and equity, trade, and lending, etc. to get a better understanding of their customers. Hadoop allows financial firms to access and analyze this data and also provides accurate insights to help make the right decision. 

Hadoop is thus a most ideal choice for the banking and financial industry and is also used in other departments like customer segmentation and experience analysis, credit risk assessment, targeted services, etc. 

Written By | Ashutosh Yadav

By centralizing storage, memory, computation, and bandwidth, this technology enables considerably more efficient computing. 

The cloud computing industry is also growing at a faster rate. As cloud technologies advance and more businesses adopt cloud-based services, it’s critical to keep up with the latest developments. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular trends in cloud computing. 

1. Growing Hybrid/Multi-Cloud

A hybrid cloud involves mixed computing, storage, and service environments that combine on-premises infrastructure, private cloud services, and a public cloud orchestration between the platforms. A company uses two or more cloud computing platforms to accomplish different tasks in a multi-cloud method.

Organizations that do not want to rely on a single cloud provider may combine resources from multiple providers to get the most out of each service. 

Hybrid cloud infrastructure is the latest trend in cloud computing; it combines two or more types of clouds, whereas a multi-cloud infrastructure combines multiple clouds of the same type.

More cloud and data center suppliers are working hard to develop hybrid and multi-cloud connections among various systems. More enterprises appreciate the different strengths of private clouds, public clouds, industry-specific clouds, and legacy on-premises installations. 

2. Containerization

Containers encapsulate an application’s lightweight runtime environment, as well as all its dependencies, such as libraries, runtime, code, binaries, and configuration files.

Containers offer a standardized approach to bundle all the components and operate them across the software development lifecycle (SDLC) on Unix, Linux, and Windows. 

As a result of the trend in cloud computing, containerization will be a factor of focus for the cloud computing industry in the coming years.

It will quickly gain traction, with large firms investing in their own containerization software packages. By 2023, 70 percent of worldwide enterprises are expected to be running more than two containerized apps in production. 

3. Cloud Security and Compliance

As with any new opportunity, leveraging cloud technology also introduces new forms of risk. Industry standards provide organizations guidance to create policies, plans, and to manage their cloud environments.

Organizations that do not use industry standards to harden their environments leave themselves open to cyber-attacks and misconfiguration. Cloud environments evolve and change, and CSPs are constantly adding new functional services that come with unique configurations and security tools to manage them.

However, organizations cannot be solely dependent on the CSP for security. One of the most effective ways for organizations to secure their public cloud accounts is to use the CIS Foundations Benchmarks.  

The CIS Foundations Benchmarks are a part of the family of cybersecurity standards managed by the Center for Internet Security (CIS). CIS Benchmarks are consensus-based, vendor-agnostic secure configuration guidelines for the most commonly used systems and technologies. 

There are more than 100 free CIS Benchmarks PDFs covering 25+ vendor product families such as operating systems, servers, cloud providers, mobile devices, desktop software, and network devices. The CIS Foundations Benchmarks provide guidance for public cloud environments at the account level. 

CIS Benchmarks are consensus-based, best-practice security configuration guides both developed and accepted by the government, business, industry, and academia.

The CIS Foundations Benchmarks are intended for system and application administrators, security specialists, auditors, help desk, platform deployment, and/or DevOps personnel who plan to develop, deploy, assess, or secure solutions in the cloud and is one the most useful cloud computing trends. 

4. Role of Artificial Intelligence

One of the most common cloud computing developments to anticipate is artificial intelligence. AI and cloud computing are being seamlessly integrated into the IT industry to improve corporate operations, functionality, and efficiency. It now allows businesses to scale, adapt, manage, and automate their processes with ease.

Artificial intelligence can give an extra layer of security to the cloud by detecting and resolving issues before they cause harm. 

AI strengthens cloud computing by enabling it to manage data, disclose insights and optimize workflows. On the other side, Cloud computing enhances the effect and reach of AI.

Given all these considerations, AI is unquestionably a cloud computing topic to keep an eye on, since it enables more efficient organizational procedures. 

5. Serverless Architecture

Cloud computing is linked with serverless architecture. It helps businesses for designing and deploy applications without having to worry about the management of physical infrastructure, which eliminates the need for architectural engineering.

Cloud service providers handle all scaling, maintenance, and upgrades in exchange for a reasonable charge.

Because all resources are allotted by the cloud service provider, it is especially useful for software developers who no longer have to manage and maintain network servers. Although serverless computing is a relatively new cloud service, demand for it is predicted to increase by 25% by 2025. 

6. DevOps

DevOps is the automation of agile methodology. The idea is to empower developers to respond to the needs of the business in near real-time. In other words, DevOps should remove much of the latency that has existed for years around software development. 

The centralized nature of cloud computing provides DevOps automation with a standard and centralized platform for testing, deployment, and production. In the past, the distributed nature of some enterprise systems didn’t fit well with centralized software deployment. Using a cloud platform solves many issues with distributed complexity. 

DevOps automation is becoming cloud-centric. Most public and private cloud computing providers support DevOps systemically on their platform, including continuous integration and continuous development tools. This tight integration lowers the cost associated with on-premises

DevOps automation technology, and provides centralized governance and control for a sound DevOps process. Many developers who enter the process find that governance keeps them out of trouble, and it is easier to control this centrally via the cloud versus attempting to bring departments under control. What is most interesting is that the cloud is not really driving DevOps; rather, DevOps is driving the interest and the growth of the cloud. 

6. Sustainability Efforts

Efforts to reduce the harmful effects on climate are increasing throughout industries, along with the advancement in technology and the cloud market. Although the cloud is often more energy-efficient than on-premises infrastructure, the rise of AI and the Internet of Things (IoT) is forcing cloud technology to work harder than ever. 

Consumers see businesses not only as a catalog of their best products and services but also as a symbol of their beliefs.

Out of nine potential areas of concern, 80 percent of consumers choose sustainability as the most essential factor to consider when evaluating businesses. Migrations to the public cloud have the potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 59 million tonnes per year. As a result, it becomes a significant cloud trend. 

The aforementioned top trends in cloud computing are some of the most important ones to follow in the cloud computing industry in the next years. According to current trends, the cloud will continue to grow in terms of popularity and technological advancement. Cloud-based services will become more efficient, accessible, and adaptive in the next years. 

Author – Kartik Bansal

If we talk about reasons to use React Native for Mobile development It is a free and open-source UI framework. Experts consider it one of the highest rates of creating an excellent user experience.

It offers programmers to develop mobile applications by spinning up JS threads that interpret JavaScript code by making a native bridge between the app and the target platform. For this and many other reasons, developers love React Native.  

Many well-known firms have already implemented React Native for iOS and Android platforms, including Facebook, Skype, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. Now to back all this up, let’s discuss some of the reasons to use React Native for mobile development. 

1. Simple And Easy to Work 

React Native facilitates developers’ work by providing meaningful error messages and time-saving and robust tools. As a result, even inexperienced mobile app developers can easily create apps with React Native.

It is simple to learn as long as the developer is familiar with JavaScript or React. The developer only needs to understand the integration of appropriate mobile components with their corresponding web components. 

2. Cross-Platform Reusable Code 

When you use React Native for a mobile app, a single code can develop the app for both iOS and Android operating systems. 

Using React Native, developers do not need to create different codes for different platforms (iOS or Android), as it is possible to use Javascript for both. Reusing code boosts efficiency and delivers super-quick development results, and diminishes expense. 

3. Third-Party Plugin Support 

It is challenging to create new software for any mobile application, and at times there are components required in a new application. Not to worry, React Native gives you the ability to link any plugin with a native or third-party module. With these 3rd party plugins, you can improve your mobile application without hassle. 

4. Easy to Debug

A single bug in mobile app development can cause significant issues. It can take hours to examine the codes and identify the problem areas to be corrected. Fortunately, since React Native development uses a single codebase, it takes a single bug fix to revitalize the entire system.

The developer’s workload is reduced because of the ease of bug fixing, saving a significant amount of time. The framework includes tools such as Nuclide and console.org to aid in debugging. 

5. Transforms Easily from Web to Mobile App 

React Native enables the developers to save a lot of time by making the journey from transforming a web page to a mobile app super easy. 

6. Online Community Support

The React Native developer community is vast, and it is one of the largest cross-platform groups. Almost every day, they continue to investigate and contribute to this framework. 

It helps programmers and developers because they can ask for advice and direction from the community if they encounter any issues while developing the app. You can get assistance from community experts or search for libraries of relevant material to help you build React Native-based applications. 

7. UI Design

React Native’s interface is highly responsive and adaptable. It gives developers and designers a lot of creative leeways.

Wrapping Up, we’re all aware of the importance of mobile phones and apps in our daily lives. People spend countless hours on a single app. The demand for mobile development will only grow over time; with the reasons to use react native for mobile applications cited above, we can all agree that React Native will be one of the leading forces in mobile development.