Definition
An Identity-Aware Proxy (IAP) is a reverse proxy that requires authentication + authorization (identity, group membership, device posture) before forwarding requests to backend applications.
In more depth
Implementations: Google Cloud IAP, AWS Verified Access, Cloudflare Zero Trust Access, Okta Access Gateway. Origin in Google BeyondCorp.
The right pattern for legacy applications that cannot speak OIDC/SAML natively — IAP handles identity at the proxy layer, apps see authenticated headers.
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