In recent years, Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP has established itself as one of the most complete and mature SaaS solutions on the market. But with this evolution, I realize that many companies still face a major challenge: the technical governance of the.
In several cases, the management of Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP ended up being the responsibility of areas that don't have a focus on security or technical knowledge of the infrastructure and administration of the application.. And, even without ill intent, this can lead to serious risks - from information leaks and operational failuresto unnecessary licensing costs.
Understanding the SaaS model and customer responsibility
The Software as a Service (SaaS) model has brought many benefits: less local infrastructure, automatic updates, global availability. But it has also changed the way we think about security.
A Oracle is responsible for keeping the infrastructure, database, operating system and application running. The customer is responsible for everything that happens within the environment: identities, access, roles, authentication policies and segregation of duties.
This division is what we call shared responsibility - and it's precisely where many organizations still have gaps.
The impact of a lack of technical governance
When there is no area or person focused on Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP governance, certain patterns repeat themselves:
- Use of critical roles in production, such as Application Implementation Consultant or IT Security Manager;
- Test and production environments without clear separation of privileges;
- Changes applied without documented GMUD;
- And sometimes licenses being consumed by papers that nobody uses anymore.
These situations are not just operational - they are security and compliance risks. And that's why the Oracle Fusion Application Administrator is so important: he is the one who ensures that all this is controlled, documented and auditable.
The role of the Oracle Fusion Application Administrator
The work of an Application Administrator goes far beyond "creating users" or "assigning roles". It's about protecting the environmentenvironment, maintaining traceability and ensuring that each access has a legitimate purpose.
On a day-to-day basis, this involves:
- Define and apply security and segregation of duties (SoD) policies;
- Review critical roles and privileges before any assignment;
- Controlling the life cycle of environments (DEV, TEST, PROD) and monitoring GMUDs;
- Monitor licenses and inactive access;
- And, above all, to act as the technical guardian of the application.
This role is often invisible - nobody notices when everything is working. But one incorrect access or misconfigured role is all it takes for the risks to become apparent.
Security beyond access: LBAC and WAF
One of the special features of Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP is that it is is accessible via the internetwhich further increases the customer's responsibility. For this reason, Oracle offers important features that many companies have yet to fully exploit: the LBAC (Location-Based Access Control) and WAF (Web Application Firewall).
O LBAC allows you to restrict access based on IP addresses. In practice, it differentiates between users connected to corporate networks and those accessing from outside, applying additional security controls. It's an efficient way of limiting access to sensitive tasks according to the user's location.
The WAF acts on another layer: it protects Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP against external threats - DDoS attacks, SQL Injection, XSS, among others. It is an application firewall managed by Oracle that filters and monitors web traffic, ensuring that only legitimate requests reach the system.
These two solutions - LBAC and WAF - complement each other.
Core roles: why they should be avoided
In the official guides, Oracle warns about the use of core roles in production environments. These roles (such as Application Implementation Consultant or Functional Setup Manager) have hundreds of privileges and should only be used during deployment.
Leaving these roles active in production is opening an unnecessary door. In addition to the security risk, there can be a financial impact - as some roles consume additional licenses. The best practice is to create customized rolesgranting only the privileges necessary for each function.
Security, compliance and economy go hand in hand
It's curious to see how good governance is not just a technical requirement - it also generates savings. Reviewing accesses, adjusting roles and applying segregation of duties policies usually results in reduction in licenses used, fewer incidents, e more stable and auditable environments.
At the end of the day, investing time in governance means investing in operational sustainability.
Conclusion
Working with security and governance in Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP is a constant balancing act: ensuring sufficient access for the business to function, but never more than necessary.
The cloud environment has brought agility, but also a new type of responsibility - one that requires continuous attention, technical knowledge and collaboration between areas.
Implement practices such as LBAC, WAF, periodic role reviews, e GMUD control is not bureaucracy: it's maturity. It's what differentiates a functional environment from a truly environment.
Solivane Peixoto - Oracle Fusion Application Administrator at EBS-IT
