Summary

EUS is an excellent solution for managing many users with many databases. It simplifies the administration tasks and adds security to an environment by allowing identity preservation. Centralizing the user accounts also ensures that user modifications—especially those done for security reasons—occur quickly, easily, and consistently.

EUS is also ideal when you want to integrate your applications, database authentication, and authorization architectures. Good security policies typically and correctly dictate a consistent and well-defined security model, which EUS can provide. Many applications and application servers will use LDAP for their authentication and authorization directories. Adding enterprise databases to this makes for a consistent and congruent security environment.

However, EUS may not be ideal in every situation. The “E” is for enterprise, and the connotation is that scalability and value are generally realized only when the size of the system has grown to a significant level. The number of databases, users, and applications required to achieve the value is subjective. There may not be a need to centralize users if they only access two databases. Beyond that, the administration and user experience are enhanced by the centralization.

The EUS capability complements other Oracle security technologies such as Oracle Label Security, Virtual Private Database, Secure Application Roles, and auditing. When used in combination, these technologies provide rings of security that help to protect your data.