1. A method of allowing an authorizing entity to grant permission to a subject to perform an action on an object in a cloud computing environment having a plurality of computing nodes, the method comprising: defining an authorizer as the entity having granting authority to delegate a predetermined permission; defining a subject as a group to whom the permission is being delegated; defining an object upon which an action is authorized within the cloud computing environment; defining the action being authorized in the cloud computing environment; and authorizing members of the subject group to perform the permitted action on the object.