Scope and fit
Machines often have persistent access across releases and teams. A workload identity inventory makes those permissions and dependencies visible when staff or services change.
Discover identities from several sources
Compare cloud IAM, source-control workflows, secret stores, application configuration, and service catalogs. Include dormant accounts and identities created by third-party integrations.
Assign a purpose and owner
For each identity, record the workload, business purpose, resources reached, human owner, credential type, and expected lifecycle. Investigate orphaned identities before disabling anything used in production.
Reduce persistence and privilege
Replace shared or long-lived credentials with workload federation or short-lived tokens when supported. Restrict permissions, rotate secrets, and alert on use outside the expected workload context.
Decisions and tradeoffs
Use this table as a working review record. Replace assumptions with evidence from the target environment.
| Decision area | Working guidance |
|---|---|
| Discover identities from several sources | Compare cloud IAM, source-control workflows, secret stores, application configuration, and service catalogs. Include dormant accounts and identities created by third-party integrations. |
| Assign a purpose and owner | For each identity, record the workload, business purpose, resources reached, human owner, credential type, and expected lifecycle. Investigate orphaned identities before disabling anything used in production. |
| Reduce persistence and privilege | Replace shared or long-lived credentials with workload federation or short-lived tokens when supported. Restrict permissions, rotate secrets, and alert on use outside the expected workload context. |
Implementation questions
What should the team decide about discover identities from several sources?
Compare cloud IAM, source-control workflows, secret stores, application configuration, and service catalogs. Include dormant accounts and identities created by third-party integrations. Use a named owner and a written acceptance check so this decision can be reviewed after deployment.
What should the team decide about assign a purpose and owner?
For each identity, record the workload, business purpose, resources reached, human owner, credential type, and expected lifecycle. Investigate orphaned identities before disabling anything used in production. Use a named owner and a written acceptance check so this decision can be reviewed after deployment.
What should the team decide about reduce persistence and privilege?
Replace shared or long-lived credentials with workload federation or short-lived tokens when supported. Restrict permissions, rotate secrets, and alert on use outside the expected workload context. Use a named owner and a written acceptance check so this decision can be reviewed after deployment.
Plan, build, verify, operate
Discover identities from several sources: Compare cloud IAM, source-control workflows, secret stores, application configuration, and service catalogs. Include dormant accounts and identities created by third-party integrations. Record the result and the next owner before changing the next boundary.
Assign a purpose and owner: For each identity, record the workload, business purpose, resources reached, human owner, credential type, and expected lifecycle. Investigate orphaned identities before disabling anything used in production. Record the result and the next owner before changing the next boundary.
Reduce persistence and privilege: Replace shared or long-lived credentials with workload federation or short-lived tokens when supported. Restrict permissions, rotate secrets, and alert on use outside the expected workload context. Record the result and the next owner before changing the next boundary.
Deployment checks
Turn the page into a reviewable handover by assigning each check to a person and retaining its result.
Inventory Workload Identities Before They Become Invisible Administrators: decision 1
Write down the boundary, owner, dependency, and proof required for inventory workload identities before they become invisible administrators before implementation begins.
Inventory Workload Identities Before They Become Invisible Administrators: decision 2
Write down the boundary, owner, dependency, and proof required for inventory workload identities before they become invisible administrators before implementation begins.
Inventory Workload Identities Before They Become Invisible Administrators: decision 3
Write down the boundary, owner, dependency, and proof required for inventory workload identities before they become invisible administrators before implementation begins.
Handover and ownership
Before handover, name the system owner, support path, access boundary, backup or recovery responsibility, and the condition that pauses a change.
Keep a short record of what was tested, what remains outside scope, and when the review should happen again.
