What does AWS IAM enable users to do?

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) plays a crucial role in managing user access and permissions for AWS services. This service allows users to create and manage AWS users and groups, as well as set permissions for those users to allow or deny access to various AWS resources. By utilizing IAM, organizations can ensure that only authorized individuals or applications have the right level of access to their resources, maintaining security and regulatory compliance.

The ability to manage permissions is fundamental for cloud environments, where multiple users and systems interact with a variety of services. IAM's policies allow for detailed control over who can perform which actions on specified resources, contributing to a secure cloud infrastructure.

In contrast, provisioning new AWS resources, monitoring performance, and scheduling automated backups are not functions of IAM. While these tasks are essential for managing cloud services, they fall under different AWS services and tools dedicated to resource management, monitoring, and operational automation, rather than user access management.