Featured image: The Benefits of Automated Request-Based Architecture in Corporate IT

 

Request-based architecture offers your corporation a great safety feature. In basic terms, one person will never have full control over actions with this type of system. If you've ever watched old movies, where two people have the codes for nuclear bombs, you'll understand the reasoning behind this architecture. Those two people would need to input their codes, or turn their keys, at the same time in order to complete the action.

 

While this is a Hollywood movie type of trope, it's based in a very useful reality. In corporate IT, a request-based architecture means that anyone changing something or completing an action in your database is not acting alone. They start the action by putting in a request which needs to be approved by a secondary person. In this way, the issue where one administrator or one high ranking employee might have overreaching authority is eliminated.

 

What Are the Benefits of Request-Based Architecture?

Request-based architecture very simply offers increased security. If you have just one administrator handling the job of adding new users and managing accounts in the directory, it would be exceptionally easy for that one person to manipulate information. They might remove people or, more troubling, they could feasibly add new users to the database and give those user accounts unlimited access. In that very dire scenario, it's possible to have a user account with access to your databases, even after that administrator has left your employment.

 

With request-based architecture, there's a log of every action taken in the database. One person isn't solely responsible for decisions. There's always a secondary authority who approves new requests before the action can be implemented.

 

There are a number of benefits to request-based architecture, including:

  • Increased Security. As discussed, this method is an added security feature because it eliminates the situation where any one employee is held unaccountable for additions or manipulation in your databases.
  • Recording Data. All actions on your database are recorded and logged. This information can be internally audited at any time and each user's actions in the database can be seen.
  • Regulation Compliance. There are a number of regulations your company may need to meet. Request-based architecture is designed to log all actions by individual users to better meet record keeping standards.

 

Automated Request-Based Architecture for Streamlined Administrator Responsibilities

For large corporations, there's a constant need for upkeep in the directory databases. This might include things like lost passwords or adding new users to the directory as employees are hired. There are any number of requests that, in most organizations, go right to the IT department and take up a good portion of your administrator's day.

 

With AdminTool, your corporation gets a request-based architecture to create and manage users and groups in your directory, but the process is automated without exposing any security objects. This takes a good deal of the burden off your administrators so that their expertise can be better used in other areas. All requests and actions are automatically logged by the system so there is always an accounting for which new users are added or manipulated and why they have been included in the directory.

 

In this way, companies might organize their protocol so that user on-boarding and off-boarding can go through the HR department or someone in the individual department where that employee works. In other cases, companies might institute a self service feature so that employees can fill out a form to request changes. Request based architecture always puts these requests through an approval process and because it is automated, it alleviates the pain and tedium of manual intervention but still allows for security and authorization for all actions.

 

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