Cloud Identity

Cloud Identity is Google's standalone identity and access management product — Google's identity layer without the rest of Google Workspace. Its free tier, Cloud Identity Free, lets an organization stand up a Google tenant at no cost, with managed user accounts, Google as an identity provider for single sign-on, basic device management, and security reporting.

What it enables in practice: you can use Google as your identity provider for free, and you can sign in to view documents that have been shared specifically with you — even if your organization runs email on Microsoft rather than Google. Creating and verifying the tenant also prevents anyone else from impersonating your domain on Google's side.

The free tier has limits — it's identity only, with no Gmail or Drive, and caps at a modest number of accounts — but for establishing a footprint and preventing impersonation, it's one of the more underused free tools available. There's a fuller write-up in our Free Resources.