Effective permissions from iam (identity and access management) policies

An apparatus comprising:

• one or more computer readable storage media;
• a processing system operatively coupled with the one or more computer readable storage media;
• and
• program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media that, when read and executed by the processing system, direct the apparatus to:
• retrieve one or more access policies that define access permissions between a principal and a resource of a plurality of resources;
• determine an effective permission defining the access of the principal to the resource in accordance with the access policies, wherein the effective permission defines the access differently than does a canonical format;
• define the effective permission in the canonical format;
• and
• store the effective permission in the canonical format for application when the principal attempts to access the resource.

One or more computer readable storage media having program instructions stored thereon that, when read and executed by a processing system, direct the processing system to:

• retrieve one or more access policies that define access permissions between a principal and a resource of a plurality of resources;
• determine an effective permission defining the access of the principal to the resource in accordance with the access policies, wherein the effective permission defines the access differently than does a canonical format;
• define the effective permission in the canonical format;
• and
• store the effective permission in the canonical format for application when the principal attempts to access the resource.