Deployment and Integration
This section describes how BeaconGuard Assurance is deployed and integrated into existing systems. The guidance is intentionally conservative and environment- agnostic to support regulated environments.
BeaconGuard is designed to integrate without changes to model internals and without distributing governance rules throughout application business logic. Applications submit normalized authorization context and enforce BeaconGuard’s explicit decision response.
Deployment Model
BeaconGuard is deployed as an independent service.
Common deployment characteristics:
- Runs as a standalone process or container
- Stateless execution model
- Horizontal scalability
- Externalized configuration and secrets
The deployment environment is responsible for:
- Process isolation
- Network controls
- Transport security (e.g., TLS)
- Secrets management
Integration Pattern
BeaconGuard integrates at the authorization boundary.
Typical request flow:
- Application prepares an authorization request
- Request is normalized and sent to BeaconGuard
- BeaconGuard evaluates against the active policy snapshot
- A deterministic decision is returned
- Application enforces the decision
BeaconGuard does not:
- Call back into applications
- Maintain session state
- Mutate application data
Request Inputs
Integration requires explicit request inputs, including:
- Actor identity (user, system, service)
- Requested action or capability
- Contextual attributes required by policy
- Reference artifact identifiers (if applicable)
Inputs must be complete and explicit. Missing or malformed inputs result in a fail-closed decision.
Policy Distribution
Policy snapshots are distributed to enforcement runtimes out-of-band.
Distribution properties:
- Snapshots are signed before distribution
- Enforcement verifies signatures before use
- Snapshot identity is fixed for evaluation
- Rollout and rollback are explicit
Hot-reloading of policy is allowed only if snapshot identity is preserved.
Audit Integration
Applications are not required to manage audit storage.
BeaconGuard:
- Emits structured audit records per evaluation
- Includes policy identity and decision metadata
- Can integrate with external storage or pipelines
The audit sink must be append-only and durable to preserve evidentiary value.
Failure Handling
Applications must be prepared to handle denial outcomes.
Failure cases include:
- Missing policy snapshots
- Verification failures
- Input normalization errors
- Internal evaluation faults
In all cases, BeaconGuard returns a deterministic DENY.
Environment Separation
Recommended environments include:
- Development (non-production data)
- Testing / validation
- Production
Policy snapshots and signing keys must not be shared across environments.