Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Microsoft Azure Active Directory or Azure AD) is a cloud-based identity and access management (IAM) solution supporting restricted access to applications with Azure Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) built-in, single sign-on (SSO), B2B collaboration controls, self-service password, and integration with Microsoft productivity and cloud storage (Office 365, OneDrive, etc) as well as 3rd party services.
Google Workspace is really pretty much the only other primary competitor. And again, Microsoft has just been the standard for so many years and it was in place at the organization when I was first brought on at the beginning of my tenure. And so it didn't seem logical to switch …
Yeah, so basically that product to be honest, was more of a getting comfortable with cloud identification management. So that was a product I used. It has all the policies for desktops and doing updates and all that central directory identity provisioning stuff for users. Users …
We use DUO as another IDP solution and we also evaluated Okta as a solution. We didn't have a choice to be honest, because Microsoft products, you can't get away with it, but it's built in and a bunch of other providers have it as authentication, so it's great.
We've used other Microsoft products and we've also used some standalone products, like each application you can have its own identity, so we've looked at some of those too, but we try to use the Entra ID as much as possible because it offers a wider range of reliability.
We actually did just the Microsoft Active directory, so we picked the actual. We did just pure active directory. I mean the open LDAP stuff, but it didn't quite work that well.
I think the closest one would be because we recently went through an implementation, but Salesforce has their own version of a signal sign-on product. It's not the same. I'd say that it works, but it doesn't give you as much functionality.
For us, it was a natural evolution of our use of active directory. As we went from on-premises to the cloud, this was an easy extension of our authentication infrastructure. We looked at other products from Oracle, so Oracle ID, Oracle Identity Management. We looked at pink …
We used Google before, but we tried to use it but it didn't. We didn't like it. I'll this is better. It integrates better with our environment that we have right now.
We're Microsoft dedicated. We do however, displace other products that do similar things, so a lot of third party products, so even like Okta. In my opinion, it's just equally as powerful or more powerful of a product and it has a way better price point for customers. I think …
I'd love to tell you about Amazon IM and Google's IM because they suck and they tell you to use Entra ID, factually. They're like, oh cool, set it up with Entra ID. They just know you're going to do it. I don't think you guys have a competitor, to be honest. You just don't.
We're a Microsoft Native shop, so we're looking at Okta's identity tool, SailPoint and a few other competitors of Venture id. And we decided to go with this one because we're already using Active Directory, so just using the native Microsoft Suites kind of just they integrate …
Well, it's natively integrated with all Microsoft Stack, so it comes very handy when you need to, for example, use it for Intune Association, et cetera, so it's very handy.
Previously we had worked with Okta, which was kind of using our replacement for active directory server, and I know that has integrations, but we ended up just going with Entra ID just for the ease of access and without having to stack on an additional third party application …
In our application use case, it's kind of unique and there isn't any like for if there's anything on the identity space, probably Okta. Yeah. But we do both use them and we have integration with Okta and Entra ID, so it works for us very well.
License and some capabilities are better in Microsoft Entra ID
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Chose Microsoft Entra ID
Microsoft Login ID was chosen for its ease of use and availability of access via any device. Unlike the old Active Directory, it has a low learning curve and is very intuitive for analysts who are using it for the first time.
It is especially good for organizations that are otherwise in the Microsoft ecosystem (Microsoft 365 applications). Microsoft Entra ID is really well supported sign-in method in various SaaS-applications and they often have step-by-step guides how to deploy the SSO with Microsoft Entra ID. It's less suitable for organizations that might use other productivity tools than M365 or do not have Windows-based computers.
Single Sign-on helps ease the user experience, allowing users to avoid typing multiple passwords.
The identity and management are straightforward to use and easy to connect to other applications, as well as third-party applications.
The support of remote work. Nowadays, many people work from home and need to access their accounts. Microsoft Enterprise ID gives secure access to the company data.
Probably the most primary thing is just the interface itself. It's frequently changing and so oftentimes we kind of have to go back and redocument our processes for our IT staff because the steps that they would take to perform a task one month. Now it's a totally different staff, new dashboard, even a new name for the product or the feature. So it would be nice if that stuff was a little bit more consistent.
MSFT Entra ID has been essential for managing our geographically dispersed team. We're confident that it will scale with us as grow, and we'll be able to take advantage of additional security and ID management features as they become necessary. Being able to centrally manage our user access from anywhere with a small support team is such a relief.
I mean it's pretty good. It is click, click. I mean, oftentimes I can go to the expert or layer two support to get help. Suddenly I go to them. So it has to be pretty useful to be honest. I do a lot of, and there's a lot of, you could do research quickly online to find out how to do certain things. I think that's the only thing we can improve to in terms of kind of a best practice path is setting up it. But because I'm it profess of tons of years in co-management services, I can figure it out. But for others they may not be able to figure it out. You still need an IT person of course to translate all of that. But to me pretty straightforward. I come from the days of directory from 2008, 2000, Microsoft server 2000.
I have not needed to engage support for anything at this time. I have been able to find the answers either online or in a knowledgebase. I tried to skip the question but it would not let me, so I rated a 9 based on other interactions with Microsoft support I have had
Make sure you use a good partner. Our implementation was a bit longer and more problematic than we expected. Our partner got it done, but, in my opinion, some of their inexperience and staffing issues were evident.
We've used other Microsoft products and we've also used some standalone products, like each application you can have its own identity, so we've looked at some of those too, but we try to use the Entra ID as much as possible because it offers a wider range of reliability.
Microsoft Professional Services' technical knowledge is appreciable as consultants design the solution as per customer requirements. Mapping of features per user specifications and assisting Customer IT engineers to implement so they can manage and administer the services.
I think it's had positive. It's enabled us to make authentication easier and more streamlined across the organization from frontline workers to back office workers.
It's allowed us to really adopt authentication policies and methods that suit that user and their work environment.
