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What is Amazon Cognito?

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Summary

Amazon Cognito is an identity platform for web and mobile apps that allows users to authenticate and authorize users from different sources such as built-in user directories, enterprise directories, consumer identity providers, and more. It features user pools and identity pools, which can be used independently or in tandem based on user access needs. User pools are for authentication and authorization, while identity pools are for granting users access to AWS resources. It is compliant with SOC 1-3, ISO 27001, and HIPAA-BAA eligible and is available in multiple AWS Regions worldwide. Pricing for Amazon Cognito can be found on the website and there is documentation and sample apps available for developers.

Q&As

What is Amazon Cognito?
Amazon Cognito is an identity platform for web and mobile apps. It’s a user directory, an authentication server, and an authorization service for OAuth 2.0 access tokens and AWS credentials.

What are user pools and identity pools?
User pools are a user directory with both self-service and administrator-driven user creation, management, and authentication. Identity pools are a collection of unique identifiers, or identities, that you assign to your users or guests and authorize to receive temporary AWS credentials.

What features does Amazon Cognito offer?
Features of Amazon Cognito include self-service and administrator-driven user creation, management, and authentication; multi-factor authentication; secure access from user accounts; custom multi-step authentication flows; look up users in another directory and migrate them to Amazon Cognito; OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect (OIDC) tokens; role-based and attribute-based access control; and unauthenticated and developer-authenticated identities.

What is the regional availability of Amazon Cognito?
Amazon Cognito is available in multiple AWS Regions worldwide.

What is the pricing for Amazon Cognito?
For information about Amazon Cognito pricing, see Amazon Cognito pricing.

AI Comments

👍 This article provides a comprehensive overview of Amazon Cognito, from features to pricing. It's great to have all this information in one place.

👎 Although this article is comprehensive, it could use more details on how to get started with Amazon Cognito.

AI Discussion

Me: The article talks about Amazon Cognito and what it is, the features it provides, how to get started, and the regional availability and pricing.

Friend: That sounds interesting. What are some of the implications of the article?

Me: Well, Amazon Cognito offers a lot of features that can be beneficial to businesses, such as user pool authentication, identity pool authorization, multi-factor authentication, and more. It also offers the ability to securely store data and credentials, as well as to integrate with other identity providers. Additionally, Amazon Cognito is available in multiple regions and has a competitive pricing structure, making it a great choice for businesses of all sizes.

Action items

Sign up for an AWS account to use Amazon Cognito.
Explore the Amazon Cognito console and the AWS SDK to get started with the service.
Research the regional availability and pricing for Amazon Cognito to determine the best fit for your needs.

Technical terms

Amazon Cognito: Amazon Cognito is an identity platform for web and mobile apps. It’s a user directory, an authentication server, and an authorization service for OAuth 2.0 access tokens and AWS credentials.
User pools: A user pool is a user directory with both self-service and administrator-driven user creation, management, and authentication. Your user pool can be an independent directory and OIDC identity provider (IdP), and an intermediate service provider (SP) to third-party providers of workforce and customer identities.
Identity pools: An identity pool is a collection of unique identifiers, or identities, that you assign to your users or guests and authorize to receive temporary AWS credentials.
OAuth 2.0: OAuth 2.0 is an open standard for authorization that enables applications to obtain limited access to user accounts on an HTTP service.
JSON web tokens (JWTs): JSON web tokens (JWTs) are an open, industry-standard method for representing claims securely between two parties.
SAML 2.0: SAML 2.0 is an XML-based protocol that enables applications to exchange authentication and authorization data between security domains.
OpenID Connect (OIDC): OpenID Connect (OIDC) is an authentication protocol that enables applications to authenticate users using a third-party identity provider.
Multi-factor authentication (MFA): Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a security system that requires more than one method of authentication from independent categories of credentials to verify the user’s identity.
AWS Security Token Service (AWS STS): AWS Security Token Service (AWS STS) is an Amazon Web Services (AWS) service that enables you to request temporary, limited-privilege credentials for AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) users or for users that you authenticate (federated users).
IAM policies: IAM policies are documents that define the permissions that are granted to an IAM user or role.
Principal tags: Principal tags are tags that are associated with an IAM principal, such as a user or role.
AWS regions and endpoints: AWS regions and endpoints are the geographic locations where AWS services are available.