Implementing Multi-Group Data Access in Adobe Analytics

[AthulV_]

I’m working on a use case where multiple user groups need different levels of data access within Adobe Analytics.

• One group should have access to all available data.

• Other groups should be restricted to only the subset of data relevant to them (for example, their own accounts, locations, or entities).

• There could be hundreds of such restricted groups.

I’m looking for guidance on the best way to implement this type of multi-group, role-based or attribute-based data access. Specifically:

• How can I restrict another user group to only the data tied to their assigned entity or scope?

• How can I efficiently manage permissions for a large number of groups?

• Should this be handled via report suite permissions, segments, user roles, or another method?

• How do we scale this approach to hundreds of restricted groups?

Any examples, strategies, or guidance would be very helpful.

Thanks!

[SamuelPaulPeter]

This type of setup is pretty common, and the good news is — you don’t need separate report suites or complicated roles. The cleanest way to handle “one full-access group + hundreds of restricted groups” is as follows:

1. Use Virtual Report Suites (VRS) for each restricted group

Each VRS can be locked down with a segment like:

“Include data where Entity = X”

This automatically limits every metric, dimension, panel, and download to just their scope. Users inside that VRS simply cannot see anything outside it.

2. Use one master segment template and clone it

You don’t have to manually build hundreds of segments.

Most companies create one template: Entity = {placeholder}

Then duplicate it for each group and plug in their entity ID.
This scales well even to 300+ groups.

3. Assign users to only their VRS

This keeps admin overhead small. When someone changes teams, you just switch their VRS membership — no need to touch segments or permissions.

4. Keep only a few real report suites

Don’t create new report suites for each group — you’ll lose the ability to compare or build unified dashboards.
One (or a few) global suites → many VRS on top of it is the right pattern.

Advantages:

- Segments + VRS = light and maintainable

- You avoid creating hundreds of report suites

- Each user sees only their own slice without any extra guardrails

- Admin tasks stay simple as the org grows

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Like @SamuelPaulPeter said, Virtual Report Suites is a great way to curate what data is available in a suite and grant the users access to only their own suite...

The problem that you might get with this approach is if you create reports on the main suite that both groups are safe to view... without access to the main suite, they won't be able to view the report (unless you are using the "share with anyone" feature, but that limits what they can do.

Depending on what data is "tied to a group"... if it's clean cut like Dimension X, Y and Z and Metrics 1, 2 and 3... you can just set up Profiles in the Admin Console and curate the access that way:

Create user groups, set those groups to the specific profile, then just grant users access via the user group... 

I suggest creating a test account to confirm that the permissions are set up correctly before granting users access.