Case Study: Google achieves scalable fine-grained authorization with WorkOS FGA

Google powers low-latency authorization with WorkOS FGA in single milliseconds

Google, a technology company requiring robust authorization for services like Drive and Docs, faced the challenge of implementing a scalable, fine-grained authorization system. They adopted the concepts of their internal Zanzibar system to build a solution that could handle complex relationships and global scale with low latency.

WorkOS implemented these Zanzibar principles in its Fine-Grained Authorization (FGA) service, enhancing them with features like warrants with dynamic policies to support attribute-based control. The WorkOS solution provided a stateful, centralized authorization service, enabling Google to decouple authorization logic from application code and perform efficient, query-able permission checks across its global infrastructure.

Google