Mastering authorization is critical for modern organizations with multiple user constituencies, applications, and data types. Groups are necessary but not sufficient in complex environments. Roles are handy for adding manageability and assurance to coarse- or medium-grained authorization but break down in the face of dynamic environments or complex access policies. Attribute-based access control (ABAC) has gained adherents, but is in fact just another piece of the puzzle. In this note, KuppingerCole will unfold the dimensions of a unified authorization framework incorporating all of the above and more.
