15 Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) Tools in 2025

At its core, RBAC is about control: who gets access, to what, and for how long. By tying permissions to roles, employees only see what they need. HR manages employee records, sales handles customer data, and nothing more. This limits insider risk, reduces the blast radius of stolen credentials, and gives security teams clear, auditable guardrails.

But RBAC doesn’t operate in a single system. Modern organizations span clouds, clusters, and data platforms, each with its own way of managing access. That’s why effective RBAC combines identity, approvals, logging, and just-in-time access into one cohesive workflow.

This guide highlights the key RBAC tools that make that possible and shows how StrongDM brings them all together as a unified access control plane.

What Is an RBAC Tool? 

A role-based access control tool allows you to determine who gets into your systems and what they can do after gaining access, all based entirely on their roles in the organization. 

With the RBAC approach, for example, an HR manager can see employee records but can’t view customer data. On the other hand, a sales rep can see customer accounts but can’t access employee records. 

RBAC follows three primary rules : 

• Role assignment: A system admin assigns roles to users.
• Role authorization: The admin must authorize the user to take on assigned roles.
• Permission authorization: The permissions tied to a role determine what a user can see or do inside the system. 

By limiting users’ access to the resources they need for their roles (least privilege access), RBAC reduces the risk of insider threats. And if a hacker steals an account, it limits the damage to only what that user’s role can access. 

Other methods of restricting access include: 

• Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) : Instead of granting access solely based on a user’s role, ABAC relies on additional attributes, including time of day and location of access.  
• Just-in-Time (JIT) Access : You temporarily provide users with access only when they need it.

1. StrongDM: Unified Access Control Plane

StrongDM provides a centralized platform to broker, approve, and monitor access to all your resources, including databases, servers, Kubernetes, and cloud services. Use it to enforce RBAC while logging every user activity in the system for accountability and compliance. 

With StrongDM as your unified access control plane, you can securely manage access without relying on VPNs, jump servers, and shared credentials.  

Key features: 

• Centralized access management: Define and enforce roles and policies across all your resources in one platform.
• Just-in-time (JIT) access: Grant temporary access that automatically expires, with built-in approvals through tickets or chat tools, plus on-call exceptions when needed.
• Ephemeral credentials: Issue one-time, least-privilege credentials and track user activity at the query and command level for strong auditing.
• Broad integrations: Connect seamlessly with identity providers (such as Okta and Azure AD), IT service management tools (such as ServiceNow and Jira), cloud platforms (such as AWS, GCP, and Azure), infrastructure-as-code workflows (such as Terraform and GitOps), secrets managers (such as HashiCorp Vault), and SIEM platforms.

With these capabilities, StrongDM helps you deliver access faster, enforce auditable least privilege, and reduce operational overheads. 

How Seismic Uses StrongDM as a Unified RBAC Solution

Between 2019 and 2021, Seismic, a global leader in sales enablement, grew fast by expanding its customer base and acquiring other businesses. 

Those acquisitions left the company with four different cloud platforms (IBM, Azure, AWS, and GCP), each with its own way of managing access. The result? A complex, fragmented setup that made it difficult to oversee and control permissions.

To fix this, Seismic set out to find a centralized solution that could unify access policies across all environments, with RBAC at the core. StrongDM gave them exactly that: a single platform to enforce roles, least privilege, and even just-in-time access across the multi-cloud infrastructure. 

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2. Okta: Identity and Group Management

Okta , as an identity provider (IdP),  lets you store and authenticate user identities in one place, including usernames, passwords, and job titles. 

You can organize users into groups based on any criteria, such as roles, and then assign permissions to each group. Everyone in a particular group automatically inherits those permissions. 

You can then sync those groups to a unified RBAC tool like StrongDM to enforce what each role can access across the system in one platform.

Highlights:

• Authentication: Okta verifies credentials, including passwords and multi-factor authentication (MFA), to ensure only authorized users gain access.
• Single sign-on (SSO): Once logged in, users can access all authorized apps and resources without signing in again.
• Lifecycle management: Okta automatically provisions, updates, or deactivates access when users join your company, change roles, or leave the organization.

3. Microsoft Entra ID: Enterprise Identity Backbone

Microsoft Entra ID , formerly Azure AD, is an IdP that allows you to manage user identities. You can use it to create roles and assign permissions to them. You can then assign the roles to individual users or groups. 

Highlights: 

• Identity management: Store and authenticate user accounts across your organization. 
• Conditional access: Grant or block access based on factors such as device posture, location, and risk signals.

Connecting Microsoft Entra ID to StrongDM lets you manage access in one place, while ensuring only secure devices can enter your systems. 

4. Cloud Identity: Lightweight IdP for Modern Teams

Cloud Identity (part of Google Workspace and Google Cloud) allows teams to manage user identities and control access in the cloud. 

Highlights: 

• Centralized identity management: Store and authenticate user identities in one place for all your cloud applications. 
• Group management: Organize users into workspace groups that reflect their teams, roles, or projects. 
• Automation: Automate provisioning, role updates, and deprovisioning to reduce manual work. 

Once you create workspace groups, StrongDM can automatically pull group memberships from Google Identity. Each user in a group gets the same permissions in StrongDM-managed infrastructure, making it easy to manage RBAC at scale. 

5. AWS IAM: Fine-Grained Cloud Role Assignments

With the  AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) tool, you can securely manage users’ access to your AWS services and resources. 

Highlights: 

• Cloud role assignments: Assign users or groups specific roles and determine their permissions in your AWS cloud systems. 
• Fine-grained access control : Instead of giving overly broad permissions based on a single factor, you can use ABAC to enforce least-privilege by factoring in multiple attributes at the resource level.

StrongDM can complement this tool by giving users secure, trackable access to AWS resources while following the fine-grained permissions you set in AWS IAM. 

6. Azure RBAC: Resource-Level Access Control

Azure RBAC lets you assign access at different layers of your Azure environment, including subscription, resource group, and service levels. This makes it possible to give users exactly the permissions they need without providing excess access to critical resources. 

When you pair it with StrongDM, you can add JIT access on top of Azure’s native controls so users get the right level of access and only when they need it. 

Highlights: 

• Granular permissions: Control access at the resource level. 
• Scoped privileges: Limit what users can see or do based on their assigned role. 

7. Google Cloud IAM: Role Hierarchies for Projects

In Google Cloud IAM , access follows a hierarchy that starts at the organization level and flows down to folders, projects, and individual resources. 

At the top, you can assign role-based permissions that apply across your entire environment. Lower-level folders, projects, and resources let you define more specific roles limited to that part of the hierarchy. 

Highlights: 

• Hierarchical access control: Grant broad permissions when necessary or limit access at the project or resource level. 
• Tailored roles: Use Google Cloud IAM’s built-in roles or create custom ones that fit the needs of different teams. 

When you integrate this RBAC software with StrongDM, you leverage Google Cloud IAM’s role hierarchies and StrongDM’s time-limited, auditable access that improve security and accountability. 

8. Kubernetes RBAC: Cluster and Namespace Permissions

Kubernetes has a built-in RBAC system that controls who can access and perform actions within your clusters. 

Highlights:

• Cluster-wide access control: For broad permissions, you can define roles that apply across an entire Kubernetes cluster. 
• Namespace-specific permissions: For more restricted permissions, you can limit access to individual namespaces so teams can only touch the workloads they own. 

With StrongDM, you can centralize access to Kubernetes clusters without handing out direct credentials. StrongDM verifies each user’s identity and brokers the connection, while Kubernetes RBAC enforces what the user can do inside the cluster.

9. Open Policy Agent (OPA): Policy-as-Code Enforcement

OPA lets you define and enforce access rules as code, making it easier to apply consistent policies across Kubernetes, cloud platforms, and other systems. Instead of hardcoding rules into applications or relying only on role assignments, OPA enables flexible, context-aware access control.

Highlights:

• Policy-as-code: Write rules in Rego (OPA’s policy language) to decide who can do what under specific conditions.
• Context-based enforcement: Apply policies that factor in user roles, request details, resource type, or environment.

With StrongDM brokering access and OPA enforcing in-cluster or in-app guardrails, you get a layered approach to RBAC that combines centralized access with fine-grained controls.

10. Snowflake RBAC: Database and Schema Controls

Snowflake comes with built-in RBAC that allows you to control who can access and work with data in the platform. You achieve this control by assigning privileges to roles and then granting those roles to users. 

Highlights:

• Layered permissions: Assign roles at the database, schema, table, or view level to fit different data access needs. 
• SQL-level enforcement: Restrict which SQL commands users can run on Snowflake based on their role. 

StrongDM can broker secure connections into Snowflake while Snowflake enforces the fine-grained data access rules. 

11. HashiCorp Vault: Secrets Management & Rotation 

HashiCorp Vault securely stores, manages, rotates, and controls access to sensitive information called "secrets." These secrets include API keys, database passwords, TLS certificates, and SSH keys. 

Highlights: 

• Secret management: Store database and API credentials in one place and manage their entire lifecycle within the tool. 
• Automated secret rotation: Replace old credentials, such as API keys or passwords, by generating new ones regularly and automatically to reduce the risk of compromise. 
• Fine-grained access control: Create policies that grant or forbid access to secrets based on user roles and additional factors. 

StrongDM integrates with Vault as a secret store. Rather than brokering user access into the Vault, StrongDM retrieves or rotates the secrets and issues ephemeral credentials to target systems. 

12. ServiceNow: Workflow and Access Approvals

ServiceNow helps organizations manage IT workflows, including how users request and get access to systems. Instead of manually tracking approvals, ServiceNow routes them through structured processes, giving teams a clear audit trail.

Highlights: 

• Streamlined requests: Users submit access requests through ServiceNow, which routes them to the correct approvers.
• Built-in governance: Approved requests can automatically trigger role assignments, ensuring access is both compliant and auditable.

Paired with StrongDM, ServiceNow handles the approval workflow while StrongDM enforces access at the infrastructure level.

13. SailPoint: Identity Governance and Certification

SailPoint focuses on  identity governance and administration (IGA). With this tool, organizations make sure the right people have the proper access. 

Highlights: 

• Role management: SailPoint lets you create roles with permissions and tie them to job positions so each user automatically gets the access they need. 
• Segregation of duties (SoD): No roles have total control over sensitive systems, processes, or activities, which reduces the risk of sabotage and misuse of information.
• Regular access reviews: Also known as certifications, access reviews involve periodically verifying whether a role should keep or lose access to applications, data, and systems. 

When you integrate it with StrongDM, SailPoint manages the governance and review process while StrongDM enforces JIT access across your IT infrastructures. 

14. Splunk: Centralized Logging and Audit Evidence

After setting RBAC permissions, you need to track whether people are using their access properly or abusing it.  Splunk helps you monitor your RBAC enforcement. 

Highlights: 

• Centralized monitoring: Collect real-time infrastructure and app logs in one place. 
• Compliance evidence: Keep detailed audit trails showing who accessed your systems, when, and what they did so you can meet regulatory and security requirements.

StrongDM can feed its detailed session logs (down to user queries and commands) into Splunk for comprehensive correlation, threat detection, and audit evidence. 

15. Terraform: Infrastructure and RBAC as Code

Terraform lets you manage infrastructure and access policies as code, adding version control and automation to your environment.

Highlights: 

• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Provision and update resources in a repeatable, auditable way.
• RBAC as Code: With Terraform, you can define roles and permissions in RBAC tools like StrongDM directly in code, making enforcement consistent, automated, and easy to plug into your DevOps workflows. 

How These Tools Complement Each Other

Some tools in the list can work together to streamline access control: 

Provisioning

When an employee joins an organization, HR adds them to the right group. The IdP used (Okta, Cloud Identity, or Microsoft Entra ID) syncs that group to StrongDM — via SCIM for Okta and Entra or via Google Directory provisioning for Cloud Identity.

Requesting access

If a user needs elevated access, they submit a request through IT service management software (ServiceNow). Once an approver signs off, StrongDM grants just-in-time access that expires automatically when it’s no longer necessary. 

Enforcement

Cloud-native RBAC systems (AWS IAM, Azure RBAC, Kubernetes, Snowflake, and Google Cloud IAM) enforce what actions a role can perform. Meanwhile, StrongDM applies extra guardrails, such as session duration and device posture. 

Evidence

StrongDM records every session and feeds logs into a SIEM tool (Splunk), while an IGA tool (SailPoint) handles quarterly access reviews.

Automation

IaC tools (Terraform) define and update role assignments in code for easy automation, while secret management tools (HashiCorp Vault) automatically rotate secrets to keep credentials fresh.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Avoiding these mistakes makes RBAC more effective: 

• Giving too much access: Use just-in-time access with automatic expiration to grant permissions only when a user needs them.
• Treating RBAC as a set-it-and-forget-it approach: Roles may drift over time as users change their job positions. Regularly review permissions to revoke access for users who no longer need it. 
• Leaving backdoors that allow shadow access: Route all access paths to StrongDM to ensure all logins are visible, authorized, and monitored. 
• Having gaps in system logs and audit trails: Capture every session from start to finish with StrongDM and send those logs to your SIEM.

How StrongDM Ties It All Together

Every RBAC tool plays a part: identity providers authenticate, cloud platforms enforce policies, workflow tools manage approvals, and SIEMs track activity. But without a unifying layer, you’re still left stitching together fragmented systems, each with its own risks and blind spots.

That’s where StrongDM comes in. As the unified access control plane, StrongDM sits on top of your entire stack of databases, servers, Kubernetes, and cloud platforms, and brokers access consistently across them all. It integrates seamlessly with your identity, ticketing, and logging tools, so RBAC policies don’t just live in theory, they’re enforced in practice.

With StrongDM, you get:

• One source of truth for access: Roles and policies applied universally across every environment.
• Just-in-time, least-privilege access: Ephemeral credentials and approvals that expire automatically.
• End-to-end visibility: Full session logs, down to queries and commands, routed into your SIEM for compliance and audits.

The result: faster provisioning, reduced risk, and a clear, auditable access workflow that security and operations teams can trust. StrongDM doesn’t just complement your RBAC tools it ties them all together into one cohesive, secure system.

Book a demo to see how StrongDM can unify access control for your organization.