Quorum Policies

Data Protection on Demand (DPoD)

Overview

Quorum is an authorization policy that requires approval from multiple stakeholders before critical operations (e.g., deleting a service instance) can proceed. This prevents accidental or malicious actions by enforcing multi-party consent.

Key features:

• Pre-approval or Revocable Authorization:

  • Time-limited, single-use: Requires approval before an operation (e.g., for irreversible actions).

  • Approved until revoked: Authorization remains active until manually revoked.

• Audit Logs: All quorum actions are recorded for transparency.

• Notifications: Email alerts keep stakeholders informed at every stage.

Enabling a Policy

Initially, all policies are disabled, and enabling a policy does not require a quorum. Once enabled, a policy cannot be disabled or edited. Any changes, including editing and disabling, will require a support ticket.

Supported Policies

The following platform policies are available for subscriber tenants (not service providers):

Roles and Permissions

Policy Management

Administrators may:

• Enable quorum policies for the tenant.

• Set the minimum number of approvers when enabling a policy.

Members of the Approval Group may:

• Vote on quorum requests.

• Re-vote (change their vote) until the quorum is approved or rejected.

• Cancel a quorum request if they are the request creator.

Procedures

Requesting a Quorum

When Quorum is enabled for service deletion, users attempting to delete a service without approval will be presented with a Create Quorum Request dialog to select an Operation Validity Period and provide an optional note.

If Set Time Period is selected:

1. Specify a start and end time for the period in which the approval can be used to perform the operation.

2. (Optional) Add a comment explaining the reason for the request.

3. Click Request

If Until Revoked is selected:

1. (Optional) Add a comment explaining the reason for the request.

2. Click Request.

In both cases, once approved:

• You will receive a notification email informing you that the quorum has been achieved.

• You can then manually proceed with deleting the service.

Canceling or Revoking a Quorum Request

To cancel a quorum request before it is approved:

1. Navigate to the Quorum Requests section under your user profile.

2. Locate the quorum request you want to cancel.

3. Click the Cancel or Revoke button as applicable.

Voting on a Quorum Request

Quorum requestors implicitly vote for their request. To vote on a quorum request:

1. You will receive an email notification when a quorum request requires your vote.

2. Navigate to the Quorum Requests section under your user profile.

3. Locate the quorum request that requires your vote.

4. Review the request details and any comments provided.

5. Click either Approve or Reject.

6. (Optional) Add a comment explaining your vote.

7. Click either Approve or Reject.

Notifications

Emails are sent to stakeholders at key events:

Audit Logs

All quorum-related actions are logged for accountability:

For more audit logging information please refer to the Audit Logging section.