Apono and SUSE Rancher Prime: Better Together for Secure Kubernetes Access

SUSE GUEST BLOG ARTICLE AUTHORED BY:
Ben Avner is the Head of Ecosystem and Strategic Alliances at Apono, where he leads the company’s global partner strategy and technology alliances. He focuses on building and scaling strategic partnerships that drive product innovation, partner-influenced pipeline, and long-term growth. A former founder and engineer, Ben brings a strong technical foundation and a builder’s mindset, combined with experience across marketing, product partnerships, and go-to-market strategy. He specializes in developing high-impact ecosystem relationships across the cloud and security landscape.

As organizations increasingly leverage Kubernetes for modern, cloud-native applications, the challenge of managing these environments securely and at scale grows. A centralized platform is needed to simplify Kubernetes operations, enabling deployment, management, and security across cloud, on-prem, and edge locations. Crucially, access to these Kubernetes environments, particularly production clusters, demands stringent control. Unnecessary security risks and operational burdens are introduced by persistent, over-privileged access.

Apono and SUSE have come together to ensure that customers have frictionless and secure access to their Kubernetes resources.

SUSE® Rancher Prime centralizes and simplifies Kubernetes operations, enabling deployment, management, and security across cloud, on-prem, and edge locations.  Apono redefines cloud-native access governance by eliminating standing privileges and delivering just-in-time and just-enough privileges.  By integrating SUSE Rancher Prime with Apono, organizations can streamline delivery of vital Kubernetes resources with reduced risk and without hindering the productivity of engineering teams.

Customer Challenges

Organizations managing Kubernetes estates commonly face several access-related challenges:

Standing Privileges Increase Risk
To keep teams productive, organizations often grant engineers permanent or overly-broad access to Kubernetes clusters. Over time, these standing privileges expand the attack surface and increase the impact of compromised identities.

Manual Access Requests Create Friction
Access to Kubernetes environments is frequently handled through ticketing systems or manual approvals. These processes slow down development, delay incident response, and place additional strain on platform and security teams.

Lack of Visibility and Governance
As the number of clusters and projects grows, it becomes harder to track who has access to what. Without continuous visibility and centralized governance, enforcing least-privilege access and preparing for audits becomes increasingly difficult.

Balancing Security and Developer Velocity
Security teams aim to reduce risk, while developers need fast, reliable access to do their jobs. Without the right tooling, organizations are forced to choose between strong security controls and operational efficiency.

How Apono and SUSE Rancher Prime Address These Challenges

Apono‘s integration with SUSE Rancher introduces automated, context-based access governance designed specifically for modern Kubernetes environments.

Just-In-Time Access to Kubernetes Resources
Apono replaces standing access with time-bound permissions to SUSE Rancher clusters and projects. Users receive access only when needed, and permissions are automatically revoked when the access window ends.

Just-Enough Privilege by Design
Access is granted based on  adaptable, scalable, and intent-driven policies, ensuring users receive only the permissions required for their specific tasks. This reduces the risk of accidental misconfigurations and limits the blast radius of potential security incidents.

Continuous Discovery and Centralized Visibility
Apono continuously discovers SUSE Rancher-managed Kubernetes resources, giving security and platform teams a real-time view of environments even as infrastructure changes.

Automated, Auditable Access Workflows
Every access request, approval, and permission change is logged automatically, providing clear audit trails for compliance and security reviews without manual effort.

Security Without Slowing Teams Down
Developers, data engineers, DevOps teams, and contractors can request access on demand through  engineer-friendly  ChatOps tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams,  Apono’s AI-powered user portal, as well as platforms like Backstage and MCP servers — eliminating ticket queues while keeping security teams firmly in control.

Better Together

Together, Apono and SUSE enable organizations to run Kubernetes securely at scale. SUSE Rancher Prime provides the operational foundation for managing Kubernetes environments, while Apono ensures access to those environments is controlled, auditable, and free of standing privileges.

The result is a Kubernetes access model that supports speed, security, and compliance  without compromise.

Next Steps

Contact Apono for a demo and see how you can start implementing Zero Standing Privileges (ZSP) and delivering just-in-time and just-enough privileges across the SUSE Rancher ecosystem today.