Autodesk Secure Service Accounts: Pros and Cons

Autodesk Secure Service Accounts are a new mechanism for connecting to project data specifically designed for application to application access.  Although the usage is very similar to the existing ACC/BIM 360 Authorization in Clarity, there are some distinct differences.  

Advantages of using a Secure Service Account to access Autodesk Construction Cloud/BIM 360:

• More secure than a traditional OAuth connection:
  • - There is no user password (cannot be stolen, hacked or mis-used like typical passwords).
  • - It can only be used by the Clarity application, no humans, no other apps.
  • - It is designed to be more restricted/scoped to limit access.
  • - The access will expire in one year if not used.
• The tokens involved can never "go bad". They never require human intervention to "reset" the connection.

Disadvantages of using a Secure Service Account

• If you already have set up Clarity access for an account to many hubs and projects:
  • - You (and all other ACC Account Owners) will need to separately authorize the "Clarity with SSA" app, in order to be able to see those ACC Accounts.
  • - The SSA process creates a new Autodesk Identity - that robotic user will need to be added to all of the same projects/accounts that any previous account had been added to.
• The Secure Service Account created is ONLY usable for Autodesk Platform Services access. It cannot sign in on a task server to operate Revit or AutoCAD like a regular Autodesk user can. As such, you will still need one or more separate accounts to automate Revit or AutoCAD on the Clarity Task Servers, and you will still need to arrange for access for your "regular" account.