Welcome back to TechTalks with Manoj — the show where we go beyond buzzwords and break down the real engineering behind modern cloud and AI systems.

Today, we’re tackling something every architect thinks they’ve nailed — until they haven’t: Authentication and Authorization.

It’s easy to dismiss identity as “just a login screen,” but in reality, it’s the backbone of every secure, scalable system you’ll ever design. And when it fails — everything fails.

In this episode, we’ll unpack the architectural blueprint for building modern identity systems that can handle the scale, complexity, and security expectations of today’s distributed world.

We’ll cover:

* The critical distinction between authentication and authorization, and why mixing them is an architect’s worst mistake.

* The evolution from RBAC to ABAC — and how Policy-as-Code is changing the game.

* How OAuth 2.0, OIDC, and SAML actually fit together in real-world enterprise systems.

* Why the API Gateway has quietly become the security control plane of the microservices era.

* And what the future holds with passwordless logins, decentralized identity, and Zero Trust architectures.

By the end, you’ll have a clear blueprint — not just for securing your apps, but for designing IAM as a first-class architectural layer, not an afterthought.

So, if you’ve ever wondered what truly separates a “secure system” from a “secure-looking system” — this one’s for you.

Let’s dive in. 🔐

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.