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RBAC is nothing more than the idea of assigning system access to users based on their role within an organization. The system needs of a given workforce are analyzed, with users grouped into roles based on common job responsibilities and system access needs. Access is then assigned to each person based strictly on their role assignment. With tight adherence to access requirements established for each role, access management becomes much easier. There are some alternatives for/variations of RBAC, including:

Access control lists (ACL) — An ACL is a means of defining access rights by a given user or user group, to a specific object, such as a document. As a simple example, an ACL could be used to allow users from one department to make changes to a document, while only allowing users from other departments to read the document.

Attribute-based access control (ABAC) — ABAC, sometimes known as policy-based access control, can use a variety of attributes, including user department, time of day, location of access, type of access required, etc. to determine whether a user’s access request should be granted.

Both of these options provide additional granularity of controls beyond the basic concept of RBAC, but can also greatly expand the effort required to create and maintain the necessary permissions. RBAC arguably offers a more simplified and manageable approach, given that the privileges of a user in a given position are granted with a simple effort, to all others in the same role. These methods can, however, be used in tandem to increase control.

Why implement RBAC? RBAC gives customers a greater degree of control over cloud resource use, with an additional layer of system security.

What types of users does RBAC have? RBAC has the following types of users:

Account owner - The account owner is the primary contact for the account and has full permissions to execute all capabilities for every product available. Each account has a single account owner.

Account user - The account user is a user who has been added by the account owner and has been assigned to specific product or account roles.