Identity and access management often comes with complexity that slows down employees and frustrates IT teams. ConductorOne’s virtual entitlements provide a way to streamline how users request and understand access while giving administrators powerful tools for organizing and bundling permissions.
In this post, we’ll break down what virtual entitlements are, why they matter, and how they can be applied in real-world use cases.
What are virtual entitlements?
ConductorOne is app based. You can create an application in ConductorOne outside of our connectors, and that application will have resources and entitlements. A virtual entitlement is an entitlement created without being tied directly to a connector. Think of it as a placeholder or abstraction layer that sits on top of existing groups, roles, or permissions.
Virtual entitlements can be created for:
- Standalone virtual apps that aren’t tied directly to a connector.
- Existing applications where entitlements need clearer naming or organization.
This flexibility means organizations can extend ConductorOne’s catalog to reflect how employees actually think about and use access without being limited to technical naming conventions or connector-based integrations.
Use case: translating technical elements
Many IT-managed groups or permissions don’t mean much to the average employee. For example, an Active Directory group might be labeled something cryptic like DWSW-3821. IT may know this refers to a VPN group, but to an end user, it’s incomprehensible.
Virtual entitlements allow teams to translate technical identifiers into plain-language labels. Instead of seeing “DWSW-3821,” employees requesting access would see “VPN Access.”
This abstraction eliminates confusion and reduces the need for help desk tickets. Employees immediately understand what they’re requesting, and IT can be confident the entitlement still maps back to the correct technical group behind the scenes.
Use case: bundling access into a single app
ConductorOne also supports access profiles, which allow admins to group multiple entitlements into one package. Virtual entitlements take this idea a step further.
With virtual entitlements, you can create what looks like an application in the app catalog, but under the hood it bundles multiple entitlements. For example, you could create a “DevOps Privilege” virtual app that includes:
- An Active Directory group entitlement
- A SQL database permission
- A GitHub role
To the end user, this looks like a single app request. Behind the scenes, it grants all the necessary access for a DevOps engineer to be productive.
This approach gives organizations more flexibility in how they present and package access—moving beyond just profiles and role-based access to delivering intuitive, purpose-driven “apps” that represent bundles of entitlements.
Why it matters
Virtual entitlements bridge the gap between technical systems and the user experience. The benefits include:
- Clarity for employees: No more guessing what a group name means.
- Reduced IT overhead: Fewer help desk tickets and questions about access.
- Flexible bundling: Package entitlements into logical apps that reflect how employees work.
- Better adoption: By making access requests intuitive, employees are more likely to use the self-service platform rather than reverting to ticketing systems.
Virtual entitlements represent a powerful way to simplify identity governance. By abstracting away technical jargon and bundling permissions into intuitive packages, ConductorOne helps organizations strike the balance between security and usability.
When employees know exactly what they’re requesting and IT has full control behind the curtain, everyone wins.
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