Robust and agile security frameworks are crucial for any organization. With the shift towards microservices architecture, a more refined, granular level of access control becomes imperative due to increased complexity, distribution and autonomy associated with individual service operations. The traditional monolithic models are often ill-suited to address the shared authorization needs in such an environment. This is where the synergy of Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) and decoupled authorization steps in, serving as a bridge between rigid traditional access control models and the nuanced, complex authorization needs of contemporary enterprises.

The transition to granular authorization

The journey from conventional Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) or rudimentary access models to a more nuanced ABAC framework is often perceived as a challenging endeavour. However, it's a transition that holds the promise of not only enhancing security postures but also aligning with compliance mandates such as SOC2, ISO27001, GDPR and CCPA.

In our transition journey at Cerbos, the shift to ABAC was propelled by a simple yet profound realization - the necessity for fine-grained authorization decisions. Unlike RBAC where roles define what actions are permissible, ABAC empowers organizations to delve deeper. It facilitates defining not just who can access what, but under what conditions, thereby introducing a logical, contextual element to access control.