What does identity federation allow an organization to do in AWS?
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C
Identity federation connects an external identity provider, such as Microsoft Entra ID or Okta, to AWS so users can authenticate once under their existing corporate identity and receive temporary AWS credentials or single sign-on access. This removes the need to hand out separate long-term IAM credentials to every workforce member. Access still comes through roles and policies, and root credentials are never involved.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. The AWS account stays private under federation; it does not replace authentication with public access to resources.
- B. Best practice is to never embed or store passwords in code, and federation specifically avoids password distribution altogether.
- D. Root credentials belong solely to the account owner and are never distributed to general workforce users, federated or otherwise.