--- title: "Cloud Native Live: Modernizing authorization" description: "Alex Olivier contrasts traditional RBAC with its limitations against ABAC and decoupled authorization, discussing the superior flexibility, scalability, and security these latter models offer. Through a live demo, Alex illustrates how Cerbos allows fine-grained, context-aware permissions, showing its real-world applicability and potential benefits." author: "Alex Olivier" date: "2025-09-17T20:56:04.181Z" canonical: "https://www.cerbos.dev/news/cloud-native-live-modernizing-authorization" image: "https://stylish-appliance-1c1cc1c30d.media.strapiapp.com/cover_image_28f6f25da2.jpg" tags: ["guide","presentation"] source: "https://www.cerbos.dev/news/cloud-native-live-modernizing-authorization" --- # Cloud Native Live: Modernizing authorization [Alex Olivier](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexolivier/), Cerbos Product Lead, shared insights into modernizing authorization in a Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) live demo. He contrasted traditional role-based access control (RBAC) with its inherent limitations against attribute-based access control (ABAC) and decoupled authorization, discussing the superior flexibility, scalability, and security these latter models offer. Alex highlighted Cerbos, an open source project that makes implementing roles and permissions simple. Through a hands-on demonstration, he illustrated how Cerbos allows fine-grained, context-aware permissions, showing its real-world applicability and benefits. This session emphasized the need for an evolved authorization strategy in today's fast-paced software development environment. If you missed it, we highly recommend watching the full video available below for an in-depth understanding.
[Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYC-MvNS75c)
## **Relevant links** Are you looking to improve your application's authorization logic and security? Look no further than Cerbos! Discover how Cerbos works and explore its powerful features, including: * [**Cerbos Hub**](https://www.cerbos.dev/product-cerbos-hub), a control plane for Cerbos * the [**Cerbos playground**](https://cerbos.dev/playground), where you can easily build and test policies in an online editor * the [**Cerbos ecosystem**](https://cerbos.dev/ecosystem) and its seamless integrations with various SDKs, modern frameworks, and authentication providers * how to unlock the full potential of Cerbos by learning about the [**conditions**](https://docs.cerbos.dev/cerbos/latest/policies/conditions.html) you can use in policies with Google's CEL * understand how to build [**Derived Roles**](https://docs.cerbos.dev/cerbos/latest/policies/derived%5Froles.html) for contextual role decisions * take advantage of Cerbos' [**unit testing and validating and testing policies in a CI/CD pipeline**](https://docs.cerbos.dev/cerbos/latest/policies/compile.html#ci-environments) * discover the [**various deployment patterns**](https://docs.cerbos.dev/cerbos/latest/deployment/index.html) and learn how to deploy Cerbos as a [**sidecar**](https://docs.cerbos.dev/cerbos/latest/deployment/k8s-sidecar.html). Get started building your first policies with ease and join the [**companies that trust Cerbos in production for their authorization needs**](https://cerbos.dev/customers).