Service principals & automation

Automation outpaces licence governance—CHAOS surfaces leaks.

Problem

CI/CD and integrations create accounts and app IDs with assignments; classic user-centric licensing fits poorly. Licences stick to technical accounts nobody owns. Security warns about shadow automation.

Approach with CHAOS

CHAOS correlates service principals / related contexts with SKU assignments (where Graph allows), flags anomalies and proposes cleanup or exception rules. Audit trail on changes. Can tie into IAM processes.

Outcome from CHAOS

Fewer zombie assignments, better control of automation licences, clearer ownership. Compliance risk drops.

Insight

Automation is code: apply the same discipline as production code (owner, review, deprecation) at the licensing layer.