Flexible Access Control List Mechanism for Cloud Content Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Most content management systems are optimized for specific usage models and are not flexible enough to accommodate modern cloud-based environments, lacking a robust and flexible access control mechanism that efficiently handles access changes and synchronization services.
Innovation Solution
A content management system with a flexible access control list mechanism that efficiently checks access at read time, determines new access privileges, and supports a scalable and efficient data structure for quick access and updates, utilizing unique indexes like aggregates and credential indexes to manage access changes and historical data states.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a content management system is optimized for a specific usage model, then it achieves high performance for that model, but it becomes inflexible and unsuitable for other usage models including modern cloud-based systems
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal access control mechanism that can handle multiple usage models (enterprise-level, cloud-based, collaboration scenarios) through a single flexible architecture. The system uses a normalized data model with subjects, objects, and access control lists that can adapt to different usage patterns without requiring optimization for each specific model, thus achieving both high performance and versatility across diverse scenarios.
2Reliability
If the system implements a robust access control mechanism with detailed tracking, then it ensures security and access management, but it increases system complexity and computational overhead
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the access control system into distinct components: subjects, objects, access control lists, and an access control database. Each component is independently managed with specialized data structures (indexes on subject IDs, object IDs, and access control list IDs). This segmentation reduces overall system complexity by allowing each part to be optimized and managed separately while maintaining robust access control through their coordinated interaction.
3Loss of information
If the system tracks all access changes and maintains historical states, then it enables audit trails and access verification, but it increases database write operations and storage requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary indexing of access control list changes by creating indexes on subject IDs, object IDs, and access control list IDs before actual access operations occur. This preliminary structuring allows the system to efficiently track and query historical access changes without requiring extensive database write operations, as the data is pre-organized for rapid retrieval and auditing purposes.
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosed technology addresses the need in the art for a content management system that can be highly flexible to the needs of its subjects. The present technology permits any object to be shared by providing a robust and flexible access control list mechanism. The present technology utilizes a data structure that is highly efficient that both minimizes the amount of information that needs to be written into any database, but also allows for fast reads and writes of information from authoritative tables that are a source of truth for the content management system, while allowing for maintenance of indexes containing more refined data that allow for efficient retrieval of certain information that would normally need to be calculated when it is needed.