Spring Security - Third Edition

ACL scalability and performance modeling

For small and medium-sized applications, the addition of ACLs is quite manageable, and while it adds overhead to database storage and runtime performance, the impact is not likely to be significant. However, depending on the granularity with which ACLs and ACEs are modeled, the numbers of database rows in a medium- to the large-sized application can be truly staggering and can task even the most seasoned database administrator.

Let's assume we were to extend ACLs to cover an extended version of the JBCP calendar application. Let's assume that users can manage accounts, post pictures to events, and administer (add/remove users) from an event. We'll model the data as follows:

• All users have accounts. ...