Exploding Identity and Permission Sprawl Fuels Risk and Confusion
As organizations adopt more systems across Cloud, Databases, Containers, SaaS apps, and internal systems, the web of identities and permissions grows out of control. It’s not unusual for companies to manage:
- Tens of thousands of cloud permissions across AWS, GCP, Azure, and other Cloud providers.
- 100+ SaaS apps, each with its own roles and access models
- Identity sprawl, with non-human identities now outnumbering humans 3:1
The result? Users are exposed to too many cloud roles, database permissions, container access, SaaS entitlements, and internal tools. They’re overwhelmed with access options they don’t understand—and worse, they’re allowed to see and request resources they shouldn’t even know exist. This overload hurts both security and usability.
Axiom’s Access Scopes as Guardrails
Access Scopes define who can see and request each resource, what access policy applies to it, and who is the designated approver. It’s how Axiom enforces least privilege by default—without requiring users to think like security engineers.
Let’s break it down:
- Resource: This can be anything very granular for least-privilege access controls—Identity Providers (roles & groups), Cloud (permission or resource-level), Databases (table-level), GitHub (repo-level permissions), and Kubernetes (namespace-level)—ensuring precise access governance. Scopes control visibility down to each resource, so users only see what’s relevant and necessary for their role.
- Access Policy: Every resource is governed by a policy that dictates how access can be granted. This can include: step-up authentication (e.g., MFA), multi-step/parallel approvals, access duration limits, justification requirements, and more.
- Designated Approver: This is the person or group responsible for approving access. Often it’s:
– The team lead for non-sensitive environments
– The security team for production or high-risk access
– A combination for sensitive roles (e.g., superadmin), where multi-stage approval is enforced
To route access requests to fully audited and automated approvals based on identity, resource, and other attributes, read the full article on Axiom’s automated workflows here.
With scopes, users only see what they’re allowed to request. Resource owners get precise, context-aware approvals. And security teams get policy enforcement without being the bottleneck.
Built for Scale and Simplicity
Access Scopes are powered by dynamic attributes—pulled from your connected systems—to eliminate static configuration without sacrificing control.
- Identity Attributes: Pulled from IdPs like Okta or Entra ID (e.g., department, role, location)
- Resource Tags: From cloud platforms or internal metadata (e.g., prod/non-prod, sensitivity level)
- Regex Matching: To map users to scopes based on naming conventions or patterns
– Key-match: e.g., match team: finance to restrict access to finance-related systems.
– Path-match: e.g., match env/prod/.* to apply access scopes only to production environments.
This design keeps scopes maintainable and future-proof, adjusting automatically as your org evolves.
For automated workflows, read more in this article.
Secure, Streamlined, Scalable
Access Scopes help organizations achieve three key outcomes:
- Security: Enforce least privilege and eliminate standing access by default. Users only see and request what’s appropriate.
- Efficiency: Reduce noise, confusion, and manual intervention. Approvers see only relevant requests. Users get faster access with less back-and-forth.
- Compliance: Every request, decision, and session is logged. Policies are enforced consistently. SoD and audit trails are built-in, not bolted on.
The end result? Cleaner access, stronger controls, and less operational overhead.
See It in Action
Access Scopes are how Axiom turns policy into paved roads, not paperwork.
Access Scopes: where security, simplicity, and speed converge. Only with Axiom.