1. A method for logging the use of privileges in a distributed computing environment, the method comprising: receiving a request from a client application to execute a business function in the distributed computing environment, wherein the distributed computing environment includes a database system, one or more client applications, and a unified security management layer between the database system and the one or more client applications; determining a privilege associated with the requested business function; logging that the request is associated with the privilege; checking in the unified security management layer whether a user associated with the request is associated with a role that has the privilege; and executing the requested business function when the user's role has the privilege; wherein checking and logging privilege access in the unified security management layer facilitates tracking privilege use for the database system and the client applications in a single entity, thereby enabling security managers to more easily audit privileged operations in the distributed computing environment.