Channel Islands is made up of resources, which are uniquely identifiable pieces of the product that have been designated as needing to be secured. Securing resources limits access to specific roles that have been given adequate permission to interact with different areas of the system. All resources can be secured.

The security model in Channel Islands is more granular than the model in QAD .NET UI. Resources in Channel Islands range from the app level down to individual fields, unlike QAD .NET UI resources, which are typically executable programs and certain activities that do not appear on the menu.