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Microsoft Entra Permissions Management [EOL] vs VMware Aria Automation comparison

Microsoft and VMware are both solutions in the Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) category. Microsoft is ranked #7 with an average rating of 7.0, while VMware is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.8. Microsoft holds a 6.8% mindshare in CIEM, compared to VMware’s 4.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of VMware users who would recommend it.
Microsoft Entra Permissions...
Read 2 Microsoft Entra Permissions Management [EOL] reviews
  • 1,102 Views
  • 331 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
VMware Aria Automation
Read 171 VMware Aria Automation reviews
  • 8,330 Views
  • 83 Comparison Views
94% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 25, 2025

VMware Aria Automation and Microsoft Entra Permissions Management [EOL] are competing in cloud automation and permissions management. VMware Aria Automation is stronger in pricing and support, while Microsoft Entra Permissions Management [EOL] is dominant in features.

Features: VMware Aria Automation shines with advanced automation capabilities, diverse integration options, and extensive customizability, concentrating on IT process optimization. Microsoft Entra Permissions Management [EOL] focuses on fine-grained permissions, compliance features, and security-focused governance arrangements, catering to organizations with heightened security needs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: VMware Aria Automation provides a flexible deployment model suitable for hybrid setups, enhanced by robust customer service. Microsoft Entra Permissions Management [EOL] offers a simplified deployment with seamless integration into Microsoft’s ecosystem, leveraging Microsoft's support network for customer service. VMware is noted for versatility with hybrid deployment, and Microsoft benefits from its ecosystem integration.

Pricing and ROI: VMware Aria Automation initially costs less, promising quick ROI due to automation efficiencies, allowing businesses to streamline operations. Microsoft Entra Permissions Management [EOL] may have higher upfront expenses but compensates with strong security features to mitigate risks and lower compliance costs over time. VMware differs with cost-effectiveness through efficiency, while Microsoft targets long-term savings with security.

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To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Entra Permissions Management [EOL] vs. VMware Aria Automation Report (Updated: July 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Entra Permissions Management [EOL] vs. VMware Aria Automation
July 2025
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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Entra Permissions...
Ranking in Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM)
7th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VMware Aria Automation
Ranking in Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM)
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
171
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Management (3rd), Configuration Management (7th), Network Automation (3rd), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (17th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Entra Permissions Management [EOL] is 6.8%, down from 20.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Automation is 4.6%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
VMware Aria Automation4.6%
Microsoft Entra Permissions Management6.8%
Other88.6%
Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

Sameer Bhat - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides resource-based access and security, but time-bound access can be a problem
Entra ID is the core of the identity management that we have. This is the key product that we are using. I am currently also looking into Entra Private Access because we are planning to deploy about 50,000 desktops into Azure and use Azure Virtual Desktop. We would like to give access to the users from the desktop to on-premises applications. I learned that Entra Private Access is a good solution. That is not yet GA, but that is what we are looking for. Entra provides a single pane of glass for managing user access, but because our company also integrates with Nebula API, only administrators use Entra's pane. A normal person who wants to get onboarded can do self-service using Nebula. The features for whitelisting and other things are definitely there. That is what we use specifically. Application IDs, enterprise applications, and all those things are already there, so we have more efficiency. There is also security because we usually do not allow user identities to get direct access to Azure resources. Usually, we use the service principles from Entra ID, so this way, it increases security. Entra has helped to save time for our IT administrators. We tend to automate a lot of things. We can do automation using Graph APIs and save time. It is hard to quantify the time savings, but there has been a medium amount of time savings. Entra has helped to save our organization money. We care about security and risk more than money, but it also saves money. We are premium customers, and because we have a commit-to-consume contract with Microsoft of multi-million dollars, the money does not come into it because we have to consume those resources.
Read full review
Le Quang Long - PeerSpot reviewer
Significantly streamlined operations with good automation that helps with simplifying workflows
It helps me build a big catalog and provide it to my end users. It helps us automate the workflow of creating many VMs and the TensorFlow key method. I do not meet many people to operate it live beforehand. It operates for both of my products, but as a product, it is complicated to integrate and automate with other products.
Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Multifactor authentication is valuable."
"The solution integrates well with our infrastructure and other systems without any issues."
"The ability to programmatically describe the desired state of a single, or an entire fleet of servers, on-premises, and in a cloud environment."
"For repeated installations and provisioning of VMs, we now have a clear definition of what has been installed, and we can monitor all that stuff."
"The repetitive tasks which took provisioning storage, network, and compute two to three weeks, now takes five minutes."
"It has saved us a lot of time and work. It helped us to reorganize some of our service lines, so we could be more efficient. For example, on our open system server team, we had 15 people building servers, now we have two."
"We automated many tool deployments with the help of the product, cutting short manual deployments and eliminating the need for human interaction. Its most valuable features include integrating various tools and working with different products using plugins."
"The most valuable feature is, instead of doing the VMotion manually, we have automated everything with a script, using vRealize. That means I don't need to think about things like compatibility. The system will do everything for me and just give me a report."
"Among the valuable features are the ease and speed of creating the VMs. Originally, we provisioned them manually and it would take us two days to do the provisioning... but with the automation, we are able to provision a VM with the click of a button, within seconds. It cut down on the time as well as cut down on the expense and employee cost in provisioning."
"I personally spend a lot of time in vRealize Orchestrator, so being able to directly tie into the back end on the APIs, I find that to be what really is the most advantageous thing for me."
More VMware Aria Automation pros
 

Cons

"We use a third-party API called Nebula API to integrate the account for authorization. The time-bound access area in Entra can be a problem. It can be improved in terms of the granularity of the permissions."
"The solution's pricing and support services need improvement."
"We would like them to improve the automation part. This is an upcoming area that we would like to focus on."
"They should make it a little bit more dynamic, a little bit easier to deal with large-scale AD deployments. They need to make it a little more enterprise-ready. That is the one thing that kills us."
"When you start to do a deployment where you need higher availability and more resiliency, then the complexity goes up drastically."
"As a product, it is complicated to integrate and automate with other products."
"I would like to see a simpler way of provisioning it. As is, we can automate the provisioning of a VM, however, when it comes to the external IPs, that is outside of VMware. But that has to be automated as well. If there was a way for us to have the virtual machines connect to switches that are external to VMware, that would be great. That way, it would handle the entire workflow from creation and provisioning of a VM to the connectivity to the external IP addresses which allow our customers to have access to the VM. Currently, that IP configuration has to be done manually."
"I don't find the solution to be intuitive and user- friendly. The GUI is really complicated. Tracking down logs and errors is very hard. Then, it takes a specialized JavaScript person to build. Also, I'm not sure how the upgrades are going now, but they definitely need to evolve the upgrade process. Finally, the logs are very generalized. Giving more of an indicator of what's actually going wrong, rather than just a generic error code, would help."
"I have not found this solution to be user-friendly. It's really complicated. The demo shows that you can automate anything but they only show basic scenarios. If you want to do anything more complicated than that, it becomes very complicated to set up."
"I'm not wanting any particular feature; but there should be cost reductions. VMware comes at a high cost, and that's why we are in the process of transitioning to a more affordable alternative."
More VMware Aria Automation cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We are a Fortune 500 company, so we always negotiate with Microsoft."
"The product cost is in the mid to high range."
"It is an open-source product."
"As far as value is concerned, it has been essential to our environment. We have been able to deploy VMs quickly and the developers have their own sandbox, so they can spin up and destroy VMs at their own will."
"vRealize automation really should be a front door to the whole VMware suite of products."
"The cost of the solution is reasonable for us. Although it is relatively high, we prioritize stability and integration over cost."
"Better pricing is always handy, but I feel it's at the right price point."
"It made the provisioning of the virtual machines easier and faster. We can react more quickly to customers' demands."
"We do plan to see ROI with any new implementation of new technologies being implemented within our environment."
"From a budget point of view, the pricing is a bit on the higher side."
More VMware Aria Automation pricing and cost advice
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise130
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Entra Permissions Management?
Multifactor authentication is valuable.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Entra Permissions Management?
The product cost is in the mid to high range. You need to have a good budget to implement it, so it is considered fairly expensive for our market. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Microsoft Entra Permissions Management?
The solution's pricing and support services need improvement.
See all answers
What's the difference between VMware vRA (automation) and vROps (operations)?
vROP is a virtualization management solution from VMWare. It is efficient and easy to manage. You can find anything you need from the software interface. It provides complete visibility over applic...
See all answers
Is there any way to try VMware Aria Automation for free?
When it comes to VMware Aria Automation, you have three choices for free runs: Hands-on Lab (HOL) Advanced lab A free trial I cannot describe in detail the second and third options as my company ...
See all answers
Which sectors can benefit the most from VMware Aria Automation?
I was looking at VMware Aria Automation case studies recently and I got the impression that three main kinds of companies were using it most often: Social organizations Financial institutions and ...
See all answers
 

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Compared 21% of the time
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Compared 18% of the time
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Compared 16% of the time
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Compared 16% of the time
VMware Aria Operations vs VMware Aria Automation Logo
VMware Aria Operations vs VMware Aria Automation
Compared 14% of the time
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Compared 10% of the time
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Compared 8% of the time
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Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) vs VMware Aria Automation
Compared 6% of the time
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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM)
August 2025
Microsoft Entra Permissions Management [EOL] reportDownload Microsoft Entra Permissions Management [EOL] product report
Buyer's Guide
VMware Aria Automation
August 2025
VMware Aria Automation reportDownload VMware Aria Automation product report
 

Also Known As

CloudKnox Permissions Management
VMware vRealize Automation, vRA, VMware DynamicOps Cloud Suite, SaltStack
 

Overview

Microsoft Entra Permissions Management [EOL] provides robust access control and identity management, enhancing security by optimizing permissions and reducing risk.

This advanced platform offers comprehensive capabilities designed to streamline identity management. It empowers organizations to manage permissions efficiently, enhancing security frameworks while addressing compliance needs. By focusing on visibility and control, it optimizes access to ensure the right resources are available to the right users, reducing excessive permission grants and potential security vulnerabilities.

What are the main features of Microsoft Entra Permissions Management [EOL]?
  • Advanced Visibility: Gain insights into permissions to identify and address security risks.
  • Access Optimization: Align permissions with actual usage to prevent over-privileged access.
  • Compliance Integration: Streamline compliance processes with built-in reporting tools.
What benefits should you consider when evaluating Microsoft Entra Permissions Management [EOL]?
  • Improved Security Posture: Reduces risk by eliminating excessive permissions.
  • Enhanced Compliance: Eases regulatory compliance with robust auditing features.
  • Operational Efficiency: Saves time and resources by automating permission management.

In specific industries like finance and healthcare, Microsoft Entra Permissions Management [EOL] plays a crucial role in maintaining data integrity and regulatory compliance. Its implementation allows organizations to seamlessly integrate permission management into existing security infrastructures, providing tailored solutions that address sector-specific requirements and challenges.

Microsoft

VMware Aria Automation is a cloud management tool that allows companies to simplify their cloud experience through a modern automation platform. The solution is designed to deliver self-service clouds, multi-cloud automation with governance, and DevOps-based security and infrastructure management. It helps organizations improve IT agility, efficiency, and productivity through its various features. 

VMware Aria Automation has multiple use cases that include the following:

  • Self-service multi-cloud: VMware Aria Automation can be used to deliver consistent self-service consumption. Another use case in this area is for delivering infrastructure across VMware Clouds as well as public clouds.

  • Multi-cloud governance: The solution can be used to manage cost, performance, networking, configuration, and security at scale for multi-cloud environments. VMware Aria Automation offers all this with an everything-as-code approach.

  • DevOps for infrastructure: Through VMware Aria Automation, companies can enable a powerful infrastructure as code platform with support for iterative development and infrastructure pipelining.

  • Kubernetes automation: Users can utilize VMware Aria Automation to automate the management of Kubernetes clusters and namespaces with support for vSphere with Tanzu.

  • Security operations: VMware Aria Automation facilitates event-driven automation to deliver full-service IT system compliance enforcement and vulnerability remediation.

VMware Aria Automation Features

VMware Aria Automation has various features that allow users to easily perform operations. Some of the solution's capacities include:

  • VMware Cloud agnostic template: This feature allows organizations to use a single cloud template to deploy with Infrastructure as a Code. Deployment options include VMware Cloud as well as major public cloud platforms such as Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and more.

  • Extensibility and customization: This VMware Aria Automation feature allows users to get full extensibility and customization. This can be achieved through Aria Automation Orchestrator, Action-Based Extensibility (ABX), and built-in integrations with common third-party tools.

  • Self-service multi-cloud: This feature enables users to request and provision infrastructure resources. It can be done across clouds using a unified and consistent Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) consumption layer, idempotent REST API, and self-service catalog.

  • Centralized policies and governance: VMware Aria Automation offers a feature for users to manage multiple clouds with templatized cloud and policy definition, automated remediation, and cloud environment visibility.

  • Configuration management: Through this feature of the product, day 1 and 2 control can be achieved for virtualized and cloud environments. This can be done with intuitive configuration automation, compliance enforcement, and vulnerability remediation.

  • Infrastructure pipelining: Through this feature, organizations can access user-friendly release automation pipelines. They can be specifically tailored for CI/CD in infrastructure use cases.

VMware Aria Automation Benefits

VMware Aria Automation offers its users various benefits. Some of the biggest advantages that the solution brings to companies that utilize it include:

  • VMware Aria Automation provides faster time to market for companies through offloading manual tasks with advanced workflows and agile templating.

  • The solution offers high levels of security and control.

  • This product is suitable for beginners, as it offers a self-service consumption experience for users.

  • VMware Aria Automation accelerates innovation through Infrastructure as Code and DevOps principles.

  • The product provides users with flexibility, as it is compatible with the most popular public cloud solutions.

  • The solution offers fast deployment because of all natively integrated functions.

Reviews from Real Users

Awais J., CTO/CEO at a tech services company, likes VMware Aria Automation because it saves a lot of time, provides more visibility, and has extensive automation capabilities.

An IT consultant at a government rates VMware Aria Automation highly because the product gives you flexibility to analyze and consume resources.

VMware
 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Rent-a-Center, Amway, Vistra Energy, Liberty Mutual
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Entra Permissions Management [EOL] vs. VMware Aria Automation
July 2025
Free Report: Microsoft Entra Permissions Management [EOL] vs. VMware Aria Automation
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