Microsoft Entra ID Reviews

I started using Azure in my organization for user management, identity management, and app security.

I am using purely Azure Active Directory, but I've used Azure Active Directory in a hybrid scenario. I sync my user from on-premises Active Directory to cloud. While I have used the solution in both scenarios, I use it mostly for purely ATS cloud situations.

We don't really have breaches anymore. Now, in most cases, we set up a sign-in policy for risky things, like a user signing in via VPN or they can't sign in based on their location. This security aspect is cool.

If a user wants to sign onto the company's account, but turn on their VPN at the same time, they might not be able to sign in because of the Conditional Access policy set up in place for them. This means their location is different from the trusted site and trusted location. Therefore, they would not be able to sign in. While they might not like it, this is for the security of the organization and its products.

The cloud security part is very valuable. Security is the most important thing in today's world. With Azure Active Directory, there are some features that tell you how you need to improve your security level. It informs you if you set up certain policies, e.g., this is where my users sign in. It tends to let you know if your organization has been breached with this security set up. Therefore, it is easier to know when you have been breached, especially if you set up a Conditional Access policy for your organization.

The authentication, the SSO and MFA, are cool. 

It has easy integration with on-premises applications using the cloud. This was useful in my previous hybrid environment. 

The user management and application management are okay.

There are some features, where if you want to access them, then you need to make use of PowerShell. If someone is not really versed in PowerShell scripting, then they would definitely have issues using some of those features in Azure Active Directory. 

I have been using Azure AD for three years.

Overall, stability is okay. Although, sometimes with the cloud, we have had downtime. In some instances, Microsoft is trying, when it comes to Azure AD, to mitigate any issues as soon as possible. I give them that. They don't have downtime for a long time.

You can extend it as much as you need. For example, you can create as many users as you want on the cloud if you sync your users from on-premises. Therefore, it is highly scalable.

I used to manage about 1,500 users in the cloud. Also, at times, I have worked with organizations who have up to 25,000 users. When it comes to scalability, it is actually okay. Based on your business requirements, small businesses can use Azure Active Directory with no extra cost as well as an organization with more than 10,000 users.

The support is okay, but it is actually different based on your specific issue because they have different teams. For example, when you have issues with cloud identity management, I think those are being handled by Microsoft 365 support, and if you have an issue with your Azure services, the Azure team handles it. 

I can say the support from Microsoft 365 support is awesome because it is free support. Although the experience is not all that awesome every time, and there is no perfect system, when compared to other supports, I would rate them as 10 (out of 10).

The initial setup was straightforward. When I set up Azure Active Directory, I just had to create an Office 365 tenant.

Creating an Office 365 tenant automatically creates an Azure Active Directory organization for you. For example, if I create my user in Microsoft 365 automatically, I see them in Azure Active Directory. I just need to go to Azure Active Directory, set up my policies, and whatever I want to do based on the documentation.

A part of the documentation is actually complex. You need to read it multiple times and reference a lot of links before you can grasp how it works and what you need to do.

The very first time, it took me awhile to set up. However, when setting it up the second time, having to create Azure AD without setting up users was less than three minutes.

I work with a client who has a small organization of 50 users worldwide. With Active Directory, they are spending a lot for 50 users for management, the cost of maintenance, etc. The ROI number is too small for the costs that they are spending on the maintenance of an on-premises setup. So, I migrated them to Azure Active Directory, where it is cost-effective compared to an on-premises setup.

For you to make use of some of the security features, you need to upgrade your licenses. If it is possible, could they just make some features free? For instance, for the Condition Access policy, you need to set that up and be on Azure AD P2 licensing. So if they could make it free or reduce the licensing for small businesses, that would be cool, as I believe security is for everyone.

The product is very good. Sometimes, I try to use Google Workspace, but I still prefer Azure to that solution. I prefer the Azure user interface versus the Google Workspace interface.

Draw out a plan. Know what you want and your requirements. Microsoft has most things in place. If you have an existing setup or MFA agreement with Okta and other services, you can still make use of them at the same time while you are using Azure Active Directory. Just know your requirements, then look for any possible way to integrate what you have with your requirements.

Overall, this solution is okay.

I would rate this solution as an eight out of 10.

My company provides different types of support for different products. I am a Microsoft Azure support engineer for Azure Active Directory.

We work with multifactor authentication, federation, synchronization of on-premise services to the cloud, migrations from on-premises to the cloud, and role-based access to company services. I also work with the identity services of Azure. I work with certain cases where customers have issues with Office 365. That's because the administration and the role-based access come from the Azure platform. 

We're in the middle of the transition to unify more services. There are many services in terms of networking with the machines and storage accounts.

Azure is a platform, so it doesn't have a version.

Microsoft 365 is a part of the service of Active Directory. Currently, all the people and institutions, such as schools and universities, working from home are getting the benefits of Microsoft 365 in Azure Active Directory. They are indirect users of Azure Active Directory. That's because all the services are with the Azure platform, and all these identities are managed from the cloud. This service is providing a huge contribution to the whole world at this time. For example, my nephew is not going to school currently, but he has to connect every day through Microsoft Teams. I know that it is Active Directory that's managing this authentication, but he doesn't know that.

Azure provides many services related to security, data protection, identity, key networking, and management of the storage accounts with encryption. The whole environment is very secure. Azure works with the security of the services. It is in the backend, and it is the same platform as Microsoft 365 or Office 365. So, if you have Office 365, you're using Azure. The platform source is the same for Azure and Office 365 or Microsoft 365. It is the same platform to manage the users. At a certain point, I guess everything will be together because even though there are too many services, all of them rely on the same platform.

There is a secure way of managing the security and access to your services. If you use Azure in your company, you can manage the type of authentication that you want to use for security. For example, you can manage your company from on-premises and also use the cloud in a hybrid environment. This way the services that Azure provides on the cloud are available for the users that exist on-premises, and this is actually where I'm working right now.

The most important things of Azure Active Directory are the security and the facility to manage all the services and users. It is very easy to manage users and assign roles, permissions, and access. At the same time, it is a very secure environment. Microsoft takes security very seriously. They take care of all the security and all the factors to prevent any kind of data or information compromise.

For data protection and access security, there are many good things that Azure and Azure Active Directory offer. You can choose in how many ways a user can log in to Azure, especially with multifactor authentication. You can choose how, when, and where someone can access a service that you may have on Azure Active Directory. 

For most of the small users, Azure Active Directory is free. So, they don't need to have a paid service for Azure Active Directory.

The platform is constantly changing. Every month, we have new services, and we also have services that are being deprecated to provide a better customer experience. For example, we have a tool that connects the users that exist on-premises to the cloud. The AD connects to this synchronization tool, which has been improved about five times in the last year. Every new version is more flexible with more options. The experience for the users has been improved to make it easier to manage the tool. In addition, the feedback that the customers provide to Microsoft is taken very seriously. For example, there were some authentication features that, for security purposes, had certain limitations. Those limitations still exist, but the portal now has options so that the customers can make custom features to manage their identity. There is a feature called manage identities where you can give flexible access to a person for services. For example, I can give you access as a reader to all my information but only for 12 hours or 24 hours. So, I can decide for how long I want to give you access. In the past, I had to give you a role that was permanent, and now, I can give you a role that will last only a few hours to allow you to do your job. In case you need more time or more features, you need to contact me and request them. 

Similarly, previously, there weren't too many options when you were synchronizing your users from on-premise to the cloud. Now, the system that allows you to make that synchronization has many options. You can select different schemas. You can select which users you want to be a part of the cloud. You can manage many rules. The customization in the whole Azure platform is awesome. All these features that are now a part of the platform were not there in the past. In these three years, I have seen so many changes. There are too many features, and I can see changes every month. There are too many settings that have been improved, especially related to authentication, permissions, and auto management ops. The cloud or the Azure platform is managed by roles that you can assign to different people, and each role has different permissions and access. So, everything is very customizable right now.

I have been working with Azure Active Directory for two years.

Scalability is one of the main features of Azure. You can adjust the services that you have., You can increase them anytime, and if you are not using them, you can downgrade the services to the minimum. The scalability and elasticity are the key features of Azure. They allow you to manage all the resources that you have according to your needs. For example, if you are a big company that is going to have a lot of customers during a period and needs to duplicate or triplicate resources, you can get all those created immediately. When you don't need that many virtual machines, storage accounts, or web services, you can downgrade to the minimum. The pricing will be according to the service that you are using. This is one of the most attractive things for the customers because if you were on-premises, what would you do with all those desktops once you don't need them. On the cloud, it is different. If you don't need it, just remove the service, and you won't be charged. It is very flexible.

I provide support for Azure AD. This is my area of support currently, but sometimes customers have questions about different products or services. Because I'm working on Azure Active Directory, it doesn't mean that I only know about this specific product. We are constantly learning and getting trained. There are too many things to learn more about the Azure platform. I have worked for the billing and subscriptions team, which is a totally different type of support. If a customer has questions about billing, subscriptions, pricing, and discounts available on the platform, I can provide support. If a customer needs help with creating a virtual machine, I can tell the customer to work with another team. If I have the knowledge, I go the extra mile and help them. 

There have been situations where the customers had a ten-year-old server that was no longer supported, and all the services were very old. They were from the time when Azure started, and those services are called classic services. Most of those services are not compatible with today's technologies. In such cases, we had to let the customers know that they need to migrate the services, which can get tough for some of them because not all users have the resources to move services to new technology. In such cases, we work with other teams within our own company and try to find a solution. We always try to find a solution. We are not limited to one solution. We'll research for options and do some brainstorming with other teams, and most of the time, there are no cases that we can't close or are unsolved. Of course, customers might have been expecting a different solution, or they are not open to change, but at a certain point, they will need to accept that some of the resources that they have been using for more than 10 years are now obsolete. 

It is very simple. All you need to do is to create a subscription. When you create an Azure subscription, you will be creating an Azure account. If you are using Office 365, you already have an Azure Active Directory account.

If you go to Azure.com and use your credentials, you would be able to log in. So, you have a basic panel with services related to Active Directory, but if you need to deploy virtual machines or other paid services, you will need to purchase a subscription. I have my own environment, but I only use it for testing and for making records of customer issues to see what's happening or why the problem is coming.

It is a very easy-to-manage platform. There are many guides. As soon as you enter the portal, you will see all products and services. Every time you click on any specific service, you will find information about the service, its pricing, etc. You will get the required information needed on the platform. I also have experience with IBM's platform, but it was not as easy to handle as the Azure platform. 

The basic tier of Azure Active Directory is free, so many users use the service for free. For a small company having the security and compliance that Azure offers is a great benefit. For small companies that are using the basic services, not having to pay for Azure Active Directory is the main asset because they can manage their users and have authentications tools and security. 

You just need to create an Azure account to get a free trial or subscription. If you sign up for a free subscription, you will have $200 that you can use for a month on any services that you want to try or test. If you're planning to use a paid subscription, you can't have the first month for free until you spend those $200. At that point, you can decide if you want to continue using the platform. You will be paying only for the services that you use. If you have a virtual machine, but you don't use the virtual machine, you won't be charged for that virtual machine. There are, however, some limitations. If you choose to have storage linked to the virtual machine, the storage is charged differently. 

Azure has different tiers. You can use the standard free version. You can have the B1 license that gives you more services. There is a B2 license that extends to even more objects, more users, and more services. So, depending on the license that you have for the product, the capacity changes. The basic tier allows you to manage a certain number of objects, which can be users, groups, permissions, etc. The number is limited because you are using the free version. If you want to manage a bigger company or more objects, you can just purchase a B1 license. If you need more, you can change to the B2 license that's a top tier. 

If the size of your company changes or you need to reduce the number of licenses or services, you can always cancel licenses. You can go back to the lower tier at any time depending on your needs. Most of the big companies use the higher tiers because they have many employees. In domains like education, there are many students, so they need to use more licenses, but most of the small companies or users who are using it for a project use the free version.

If you need to purchase a service, for each and every service that Azure offers, there are different pricing tiers. For example, you don't have to purchase a virtual machine that is too expensive. There are basic virtual machines that may cost you $40 for one month. If you need a very specific machine to do a deployment, you can use it just for the deployment and then delete the virtual machine. You have to pay it only for the hours for which you used that machine, which is a great advantage. If you work with data processing or you're a developer who needs to test new software or a game, you don't need to pay a huge amount of money for a specific virtual machine. You will only be paying for the hours that you need to do the testing. You don't have to pay $6,000 for high-end technology. I know that the idea is to keep people using the virtual machine, the storage account, or any service they have, but if their needs are just limited for a few hours of the month, that's what they will be paying for. So, it is very flexible.

I would recommend Azure Active Directory to everybody. I would recommend others to use it to easily manage all the users. If you are dependent on an on-premises server, those servers may fail. Some people have too many old servers. If you move to the cloud, you don't have to worry about hardware maintenance.

Microsoft offers several ways to keep your data safe on the cloud. For example, you can choose replication. That means that your data will be at two different data centers. You can have your information at two different locations, such as in the east of the USA and in the west of the USA. If you are paying for higher services, all your information can also be in another country or region. So, all the information that a company may have in Azure will be protected if something catastrophic happens, which is something very important, especially for large companies. 

The improvements to the platform are constant, and the feedback that the customers provide to Microsoft is taken very seriously. They have a feedback page where the users can request new features or existing features that they are not happy about. Microsoft takes into account all these requests, and I see the response from the backend team or developers. I can see how they provide new products or good information about what they are doing right now to improve the services. Most of the requests are for new services and ideas, and most of those ideas are seriously reviewed. I can see that over the last few years, how many of these requests have become a part of the platform. So, you see improvements everywhere. There is also a change in Office 365, which will be soon known as Microsoft 365. They're changing the experience, and they are also changing the licenses to include more products. So, changes are constant. I am not saying this because I work for Microsoft. I have also worked for Amazon, and I see similar structures. They are making changes all the time.

Every day, I see the requests of customers and the response from Microsoft to those requests. When all these improvements are added to the platform, for those of us who are on support, the cases become easier to manage. It gets easier to provide solutions because we have more options to resolve the problems, and the customers also have more options. 

There are times when customers don't realize that the platform has changed and the services they used don't exist anymore. Usually, we provide support through Microsoft Teams and remote sessions. So, we go there, and we explain to the customer that they can do this because the platform allows them to select this and then do customization. So, everything is flexible. The customers sometimes are very surprised because they don't know that the platform has changed so fast. The experience of providing support becomes very nice when a customer is amazed by all the new features. They had been working in the old way, and they didn't know that they now have many options on the platform. In such cases, it is a very satisfactory experience for the customer and also for us. In some cases, it takes about 10 minutes, and the problem is solved. The customer becomes very satisfied with the solution.

I would rate it a 10 out of 10. I can't tell how happy people are when they call and are looking for such a service, and they realize that it already exists. They just didn't know about it. This rating is not based on the experience that I have in working with Microsoft; it is based on the experience of the customers I work with.

We have a variety of use cases. The first thing we use it for is Microsoft 365 services. We utilize the single sign-on capability, for use with other SaaS applications. We use MFA, and use it as an identity provider, in general. We make use of the B2B Federation functionality based on Active Directory, as well.

We use a hybrid Azure Active Directory that works in conjunction with our on-premises Active Directory.

Azure AD has security features that have definitely helped to improve our security posture. Our hybrid environment makes it very easy for us to control when we need to integrate with third-party solutions. Normally, we do not allow integration with our on-premises systems and by requiring the third parties to integrate through Azure Active Directory, it gives us an extra layer of security. There is one-way communication from our on-premises Active Directory, which helps to secure our main controllers.

Another thing that we use extensively is conditional access, on top of the Azure Active Directory multi-factor authentication. We are quite happy with the metrics and reports, as well as the logging of risks, such as attempts to sign in from different areas.

So far, we haven't had any incidents. We've seen some attempts to steal our identities or to log in using our credentials but the security provided by this product, including conditional access and MFA, has stopped these attempts. From a security perspective, we are quite happy.

Overall, our security posture has improved, especially when we are talking about MFA. We have MFA deployed on-premises for all of our critical applications. Moving beyond this, to the cloud, I cannot imagine dealing with all of these different SaaS products without having AD or another cloud identity provider in place. We could use a competing product but definitely, we cannot survive solely with our on-premises solution.

This solution has improved our end-user experience, in particular, because of the single sign-on feature. Our users can quite easily begin working. For example, I've worked with other SaaS solutions and one thing that users complain about is the additional steps required for MFA. Some of the non-tech-savvy end-users sometimes struggle, but overall, I would say the experience is quite good.

We are a group of companies and have different Active Directory Forests and domains. Using Azure Active Directory, collaboration is much easier for us because we are able to configure it at the cloud level.

The most valuable feature is its ability to act as an identity provider for other cloud-based, SaaS applications. In our bank, this is the main identity provider for such features. Not on Office 365 applications, but on others like Salesforce.

The B2B Federation functionality is not perfect and could be improved. It is not on the same level that we could have if it were being used on-premises. It offers a different experience, which is a bit complicated and has some additional drawbacks.

The MFA has some limitations compared to the legacy version. We still use our on-premises version because it works with our legacy applications using certain protocols. 

I think that as Microsoft is going to the cloud, they are turning off the on-premises features too quickly because the functionality is not yet at par.

I would like to see more features included, such as some surrounding the lifecycle of licenses, and access management for non-Azure cloud applications

We have been using Azure Active Directory for approximately three years.

Prior to working with this company, I worked for Microsoft and I used Azure Active Directory as a user over a period of four to six years.

I'm pretty happy with the stability of this product. In all of the time that I have used it, I do remember a couple of instances where there was downtime. However, these did not last for a significant length of time.

I can recall that it went down one time, for approximately four hours, in several years. SLAs are definitely met by Microsoft.

Scalability-wise, it works for us. We haven't had any problems and it is quite scalable.

Our company has 4,000 employees, so it isn't very large but so far, so good.

There are two people who are administrators that are involved in the managing and administration of Azure AD. I do not have administrative rights. Rather, I am set up for viewing only. 

In general, I would rate Microsoft support a seven out of ten. Sometimes we needed to speak with different people about the same problem, and each time, we had to describe the situation from scratch.

I have no experience with other B2B Federation solutions, so I can't compare Azure Active Directory in this regard.

Our initial setup was complex in some ways and easier in others. The complexity stemmed from the fact that we are a bank, and the security team chose the most complex deployment. Because the security people chose the most complex options, they are missing things. For example, self-service password reset is not working for us because it's one-direction communication.

In summary, our initial setup was complex because it was chosen as such. Although it is the most secure, we are missing some benefits that we would have if we had chosen a different setup.

The deployment itself was not very long. However, the planning stage was lengthy because of the in-depth discussions with the security team. Overall, the deployment took perhaps two weeks or less.

Our deployment strategy was a rather high-level approach and considered that our primary identity provider is on-premises AD, which means that we were able to take some of the details from there. We did not have to consider everything from scratch. For example, our password hash is one-way, so there are no writebacks. We defined it this way because it's quite secure. Similarly, we needed integration with third parties, such as other cloud providers. This meant that we were not afraid if something is breached because there would be no impact on our Active Directory. The only impact from a problem would be at the Azure Active Directory level.

The cost of Azure AD is one of the biggest benefits, as it is available for use free of charge when you start with Office 365. It comes with the basic version of it and you can move to the more expensive plans with additional features, but these are still very competitive compared to other vendors.

By comparison, other vendors offered an independent MFA product but at quite an expensive price. With Microsoft, it was already included in the price. The bundling approach that Microsoft uses is good; although competitors may offer a more compelling solution, we already have access to the one from Microsoft at no additional cost.

We evaluated some other products from an MFA perspective but I have no hands-on experience with them. I received many good recommendations about both Okta and Ping Identity solutions.

My advice for anybody who is considering Azure Active Directory is that if they are going to use other Microsoft services, like Office 365, then it's no brainer. It's the perfect solution for situations like this.

If you're using a different stack, like Google, and you choose a different cloud provider like Google or Amazon, then if you are using Microsoft, it is still good to use Azure Active Directory. The costs are relatively cheap compared to others.

However, if you're not using Microsoft products, then I would suggest that you could look to other vendors like Okta, for example. I had quite a few good references regarding Okta and the Ping Identity products. Ultimately, you are free to choose but from a cost perspective, Microsoft is great.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

The primary use case for Microsoft Entra ID is enterprise or company-wide system management. It allows us to join most systems, regardless of their location, to the active directory of the company's domain. This is particularly useful for managing PCs for remote workers and securing their devices.

Microsoft Entra ID has made managing users easier, as well as sending out policies and implementing restrictions. It simplifies the management of IT infrastructure.

The features I find most valuable are conditional access, privilege management, and dynamic groups. Conditional access allows us to set specific policies for security purposes. Privilege management enables us to assign specific roles to users, such as user administration, without giving everyone admin rights.

Microsoft often changes settings, and many features are scattered. It would be helpful if settings were grouped under a specific category, like authentication, to make it easier for beginners. The platform can be overwhelming for new users, so consistent organization of features is needed.

I have been working with Microsoft Entra ID for a good part of five years, migrating over from when it was previously named Azure Active Directory.

There can be outages or times when the portal is unresponsive, which is why I would rate the stability a seven.

I have not encountered any issues with scalability; it is for everyone. So, the scalability rating is ten out of ten.

I haven't raised any tickets with technical support, as I was part of the Microsoft technical support group.

Positive

No other solutions were used previously.

The initial setup is straightforward due to my experience, however, I would rate it a six or seven out of ten for someone new. Issues arise if users make incorrect choices during the out-of-box experience.

The deployment requires one person to create user profiles and assign relevant permissions, though two to three people may be needed for advanced features.

Business process-wise, Microsoft Entra ID makes managing users and IT infrastructure easier.

The pricing is fair compared to other products, and I would rate it a five out of ten for value for money.

No other solutions were evaluated.

For seamless integrations with other services, Microsoft Entra ID is likely the easiest tool. I would recommend it to others.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

We primarily use the solution for our AD. Azure AD and Microsoft Entra ID are basically the same, they are currently rebranding. I basically manage users and permissions.

It's made it easy to manage our users. It's also easy to deploy across the company. It pulls over the Exchange and does everything together in one go. You just have to get the licenses.

The login process is easy. It's very user-friendly for users. We can check the logins and handle user management. It's quite simple and easy to use.

It provides a single pane of glass for managing users and access. It's easy for users to handle multiple devices. It makes the sign-on experience better. It can easily teach users how to use the authenticator app.

I'm able to get reports on the database to help give visibility to security. I don't handle security, however. I'm there for support. People can use the data to perform investigations. 

The ID is quite useful. The Azure ID admin center can manage all identity access tasks across an organization. We can easily set up users. It's something you need in every company. Most of the basic stuff is done for users.

The Verified ID is useful for authentication. You can set it in your privacy settings. 

The solution has helped us save time.

The experience overall has been good for employees when they need to get an ID. If you need an extra license, it's just a matter of clicking one button.

We'd like to be able to link to non-Mircosft products, like Linux. There isn't much open source that links up with Azure. Most open source, however, can link up with AWS.

I've been using the solution for four years now. 

The solution is stable. it's dependable. 

We have about 100 users on the solution. 

It's easy to scale up or down. It does what it needs to do. You can always edit or delete resources as well. 

We haven't had any issues. Therefore, I have not really dealt with technical support. 

Positive

I was also working with Microsoft Active Directory on-prem. I'm new to this company; I've worked with other things in other companies before. 

I've used Okta in the past. I find the Azure pricing more user-friendly and I find it's better in terms fo team collaboration. For example, with this, you can also implement Microsoft Defender which can help you monitor users as well.

We have it deployed to the cloud; it's too expensive to maintain on-prem hardware. 

I was not directly involved in the deployment of the solution. 

Only two people have to maintain the product. 

The pricing is expensive. It's in US dollars. I'd rate the affordability of pricing six out of ten. 

I'm not sure if the company evaluated other options. 

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. My advice would be to stay virtual and not on-prem or you'll have to pay more.

We use Microsoft Entra ID primarily to reconnect all of our Windows laptops. It is our centralized location for access to pretty much anything web-related. Everything you log in is MFA activated. We've worked on conditional access policies in it as well.

Microsoft Entra ID has improved our organization because we now utilize a single source of truth for authentication. We have less management, and I can point everything to Microsoft Entra ID. I have fewer people talking about resetting passwords, the MFA pieces, and more single sign-on.

I'm not attaching or having to authenticate on separate apps, which has greatly benefited us. We are able to route things into Microsoft Entra ID. I create one ID, I create groups that manage the security side of it, we plug that in, and it works great.

The most valuable features of Microsoft Entra ID are the login and the conditional access pieces. The login helps me identify who went where, why, and what problems they may have encountered. The conditional access allows me to control the flow of user access.

The private access is the next big thing for us, and that's one feature I'm going to try in public preview and probably move towards. There is no great solution in the cloud for Conditional Access authentication and RADIUS-type authentication.

I have been using Microsoft Entra ID for four years.

The solution's stability is very good. We've only had one minor outage for a few hours.

The solution's scalability is really good.

The solution's initial setup is fairly straightforward. The biggest issues we had were syncing it to the on-premises Active Directory and doing local things like RADIUS.

We implemented the solution with the help of a consultant named Steeves and Associates, and our experience with them was really good.

We have seen a return on investment with Microsoft Entra ID. The solution has dramatically reduced the amount of time spent on activating accounts. I was the first system administrator at the company, and we've got four now. It's definitely a growing arena, but it's an understanding that I can see that progression. I don't have to teach them all these different things. We just do one thing and move on.

Everything costs money in a tough market. As a nonprofit, we have A5 licenses for nonprofits in education, so we at least have some reduced costs. Looking at Copilot and a bunch of other features that are coming out, we'll have to seriously consider that cost-to-value ratio.

Since we all use Windows laptops, choosing Microsoft Entra ID made sense. I think there's a cohesivity in what Microsoft is trying to do, and Microsoft Entra ID is a very core function of that strategy. It's easier to branch out to other security products, making it easier for us to expand that landscape.

Microsoft Entra provides a single pane of glass for managing user access.

Because of the solution's single pane of glass, we don't have to run around to multiple places, mainly to create or remove accounts. One of our biggest issues, especially in the past few years, is turnover. Removing accounts is a big issue because we don't know where everything lies. Trying to find those little corners where access has been granted and not knowing it for a year or two after the employee has left is a huge security concern for us.

Our HR department doesn't use Microsoft Entra ID yet, but the IT department extensively uses it. It saves all that account creation, and we don't have to run around to different products. The solution has saved our company at least a few hours a week. We can focus on other projects, and I can educate most of my staff who are doing it in other areas.

Microsoft Entra ID has not necessarily helped our organization to save money. As a nonprofit, we didn't have any solutions, so it probably started costing us more. However, I think it's paid off just by this security nature of things and having that single pane of glass.

Overall, I rate Microsoft Entra ID ten out of ten.

We manage local users in the Microsoft Entra ID environment. 

The tool's most valuable features are security and integration with other tenants. 

The product takes at least ten minutes to activate privilege identity management roles. 

I have been using the product for two years. 

The tool's stability is good. 

Microsoft Entra ID's support is good. 

The tool's deployment is easy. However, documentation is not helpful. 

The product is cheap. It is free for our tenant. 

I rate the product a seven out of ten. 

The solution grants users access to various apps built on the portal. 

There was a lot of logic and a lot of improvement overall in terms of improvement. On the user access side, it improves the company a lot, specifically in regard to security. It really does help with access and protection.

My experience so far has been amazing. I'm in the intermediate phase of understanding it. Loading users and creating groups and so forth is very easy. We can also run multifactor authentication.

The dashboard is very good. It's outstanding.

It offers very good support.

The virtual machines you can run through it are great.

We are provided with a single pane of glass for managing user access. It helps provide more insights and creates consistency in the user experience. It works perfectly. Only admins can control access. That makes it safe. If a user requests something, only the admin would be able to assign the permissions.

My assessment of Active Directory's admin center managing all of your identities and access tasks is that it is very effective. 

I do use the verified ID at this time to onboard employees. Onboarding new users is very easy. It's very quick and doesn't affect the users. It's simply sped up the process. It also helps with privacy and control of identity data for remote employees. It's good to have and it assists with security. 

Permission management is quite good. The visibility and control in the clouds are good - at least over Microsoft. 

The product has helped save time for our IT administrators and HR department. It's helped a lot of time. It might save around 70% of our time from an IT admin support perspective.

It's very good at not disrupting the user experience. 

I'm still new to the solution. I need to look at the solution more before commenting on what to enhance. 

I do not need any extra features from my side. 

Having more training would be quite helpful. 

Having a faster interface could be helpful.

I've used the solution for two years. 

The solution is stable. 

We use the solution across multiple locations. We have multiple systems and apps that we built that run through Azure. We have about five people actively using the solution. We only have about seven people in our organization. 

The solution can scale well. I'd rate scalability nine out of ten. 

I've never dealt with technical support. My colleagues have used it and I've heard from another user that the turnaround was almost immediate. My understanding is that it is quite good. 

Positive

We did not previously use a different solution. 

The initial setup was straightforward. It does not require any maintenance. 

I'm not sure if we've saved money specifically using the solution, yet, if that wasn't the case, I'm not sure why we would use it.

We have not evaluated other solutions. 

I'm a customer and end-user.

I don't use the conditional access feature. 

I'd personally recommend the solution to anyone. I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. 

We used Azure AD for a role-based customer access mechanism. We implemented a single tenant, single sign-on for users of the application. We gave them a sign-on feature with OpenID Connect.

Previously we had to manually create the authentication server, but when we used Azure AD, we got the server directly from Azure. I didn't have to design the server.

We were also able to filter on the domain for the client I was working for.

In addition, we used Azure AD's Conditional Access feature to enforce fine-tuned and adaptive access controls. That was pretty useful because we didn't have to do much because we had attributes like authorized tags. And we configured scope, meaning who can access what, in the manifest. It was not very complicated.

And Azure ID has definitely helped save us time. Earlier, we had to depend on the infrastructure team, a different team, to manage the Active Directory permissions. But now, most of the time, the developers have access in the portal. It is saving us about 40 percent of our time.

The most valuable features of Azure ID are the single sign-on and OpenID Connect authentication.

Also, it was very nice that the documentation, the articles and help, on how to implement what we were trying to do, were available freely on the site, making it easy to develop. We did two or three sprints because things worked. Most of the time was spent on development and testing. But the deployment was easy.

Maybe I don't have enough experience, but when you fix the rules and permissions, working directly on the manifest, you really need to have in-depth knowledge. If there were a graphical user interface to update the manifest, that would be good. For example, if I want to grant access to HR versus an admin, I have to specifically write that in the manifest file to create the various roles. That means I'm coding in the manifest file. A graphical user interface would really help.

I have been using Azure AD for two-plus years.

The stability is 95 percent. We don't have any issues with it.

Of course it's scalable and that's why we choose the platform. We only have two regions in the load balancer. We have not gone beyond that, so we have not faced an issue.

We deployed it in multiple locations for our customer.

We haven't contacted Microsoft support.

I have played a small role in deploying Azure AD, but I have not been involved in the migration process. Overall, the deployment is easy. It took us 20 to 25 days, including fixing issues. That was normal, nothing unusual.

Regarding maintenance, the team I'm on does application maintenance. For Azure, we have a cloud admin who looks at the Azure portal for things like billing, access management, and admin work.

Some people use SAML technology for single sign-on. Although I haven't used it, it seems a bit complex. I started working directly with Azure AD OpenID Connect to a single tenant, or Azure AD B2B or B2C, and it was very smooth. It was not much of a challenge. Most of the complex things are taken care of by the Azure AD login. Usually, you don't need to do a deep dive into what is happening internally. 

Microsoft is like a "hovercraft", as opposed to scuba diving. With Microsoft, you can use the "hovercraft". Without touching the river you can cross it.

I have not explored many other competitive products, like GCP or AWS. I am a supporter of Microsoft products.

With Verified ID, things were secure. In recent news, there has been some hacking due to some developer using an email ID as opposed to OpenID, but our team did not use email IDs. Even if we were using email IDs for single sign-on, the user still needed to sign up with a password, so it was not possible to impersonate someone else.

The user experience, the interface, is very smooth. We have never had any problems with the single sign-on.

When applications are hosted on Azure, you should use the advantages of Azure AD.

Microsoft Entra ID is used to control access to our environment.

Microsoft Entra ID has been most beneficial in the realm of IT management, although not significantly impactful on user experience. Microsoft Entra ID is not solely for user management or enhancing user experience. Rather, it greatly aids in constructing operational processes for IT management, as its capabilities extend far beyond user and access management. In terms of refining user experience, it certainly contributes to areas like authentication, particularly in diverse authentication methods and device-based authentication. 

The best thing about Microsoft Entra ID is the ease of setup.

If we're highly experienced or dealing with intricate scenarios, Microsoft Entra ID might not be the most suitable solution. In my opinion, it resolves the majority of cases, but it lacks comprehensive management tools for access control. I don't consider it the premier tool for user or identity management. While it covers many aspects, we'll need supplementary tools to effectively manage access rules. This deficiency is quite significant. To make it viable for a large organization, substantial additional development is necessary.

Microsoft Entra ID provides a way to manage user access, but it's not an effective tool for access management due to its excessive complexity. This is primarily because the process needs to be performed manually. Therefore, it lacks a user-friendly interface where we could define all access rules and scenarios comprehensively.

Zero trust is not easy to set up, especially for large organizations. While it could be implemented for smaller organizations, the extensive manual configuration required makes it impractical for larger enterprises.

Microsoft Entra ID's impact on access and identity management is relatively limited.

The single interface for managing permissions, permission rules, or conditional access policies needs to be significantly more user-friendly. While it remains functional for IT departments, it is not particularly user-friendly for end users. There is considerable room for improvement in this regard.

Microsoft Entra ID offers various features, but its setup and utilization are quite complex due to the lack of a user-friendly interface for end users. Unless we allocate a significant budget and a substantial workforce to configure it for end users, making it usable remains a challenge. Moreover, even with these investments, the cost of using Microsoft Entra ID would become prohibitively high. Thus, it's evident that the platform lacks the necessary functionality to provide a satisfactory end-user experience. 

I have been using Microsoft Entra ID for eight years.

The solution is stable. I have not encountered any stability issues.

Microsoft Entra ID is scalable.

I have had a positive experience with technical support. Additionally, if we opt for premium support or possess varying levels of support agreements with Microsoft, we can access excellent support.

Positive

The deployment is quite straightforward. It's truly uncomplicated from an IT perspective to utilize Microsoft Entra ID. It's not overly intricate in that aspect. However, when we delve into end-user scenarios, and the management and configuration of conditional access policies, permission management, and other similar aspects, it does introduce a certain level of complexity, naturally.

Microsoft Entra ID service can be quite costly due to its hidden expenses linked to usage. This cost ambiguity arises from our inability to accurately project expenses prior to implementation, contingent upon the specific features employed. The expense is particularly notable if we intend to utilize it for comprehensive identity management. Nevertheless, alternative budget-friendly identity management solutions are limited within the current market landscape.

There are no additional costs for maintenance because most of the parts are cloud-based and managed by Microsoft. This means we can't manage it ourselves. However, if we had a private cloud with Microsoft Entra ID, for instance, then we could manage our entire cloud ourselves. This would allow us to have good control of the costs. But there are many small components in Microsoft Entra ID. So, when we are planning to build something with Microsoft Entra ID, we might struggle to understand the total cost for the users. It's difficult to comprehend all the necessary pieces we need to purchase to construct a scenario. Only after we have designed this solution, we will be able to see the complete cost. Unfortunately, there are numerous hidden costs in Microsoft Entra ID that I am not particularly fond of.

If we consider the top three or four management tools, they offer numerous out-of-the-box features for connecting to HR sources. Furthermore, we have a straightforward method for establishing access policies based on our HR data. In my opinion, competitors hold an advantage over Microsoft Entra ID.

I would rate Microsoft Entra ID eight out of ten.

We can achieve a great deal with conditional access policies; however, using the interface itself is quite cumbersome and not very user-friendly. Consequently, there are very few tools currently available that offer a well-designed user interface for managing access policies. This is consistently a highly intricate scenario.

Based on my experience, Okta functions primarily as a solution for managing customer access or customer identity, rather than being the conventional method for handling business or corporate identities. It's more focused on robustly managing customer identities. However, in my previous procurement roles, it has never been selected as the primary option. This could be due to my limited exposure to customer identity management. Thus, I find it challenging to draw a direct comparison. On the other hand, Microsoft Azure Active Directory can certainly serve as a customer identity management solution and is comparable in this aspect. However, the comparison doesn't hold true for user identity management.

The maintenance is controlled by Microsoft because the solution is on their cloud.

Organizations should refrain from exclusively using Microsoft Entra ID for all identity and access management scenarios. This is because relying solely on Microsoft Entra ID necessitates creating additional components ourselves to address aspects that cannot be readily addressed using the default Microsoft Entra ID setup. We are required to construct these components and establish phases for end users, as Microsoft Entra ID does not encompass all these functionalities. A more effective approach could involve integrating Microsoft Entra ID with another product, such as SailPoint. This combined utilization would likely result in a robust identity management solution. It's important to recognize that Microsoft Entra ID alone cannot adequately address all our scenarios.