Technologies are described herein for governing access to a computing resource. A proxy receives a request to access a computing resource. In response to the request, the proxy determines whether the request can be granted without consulting a governor for the computing resource. If the request cannot be granted without consulting the governor, the proxy transmits the request to a broker. The broker, in turn, transmits the request to a governor for the computing resource. The governor determines whether the requested access to the computing resource should be granted. The governor generates a response to the request and transmits the response to the broker. The broker, in turn, transmits the response to the proxy. The broker may also request notifications from the governor.