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Microsoft

Microsoft Entra ID

Microsoft's cloud identity provider with single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, conditional access, identity governance and privileged identity management.

Overview

Microsoft Entra ID in practice

Microsoft Entra ID, formerly Azure AD, is the directory behind Microsoft 365, Azure and several thousand pre-integrated SaaS applications in the Entra application gallery. Its main building blocks are Conditional Access as the rule engine for access decisions, multi-factor authentication including passwordless methods, Privileged Identity Management for time-limited administrator rights, and access reviews for recurring entitlement checks.

Since 1 October 2025 Microsoft has been phasing in MFA for write operations through Azure CLI, PowerShell, REST endpoints and Infrastructure-as-Code tooling — automation still running under a user account breaks at that point and belongs on managed identities or service principals. A second stumbling block in hybrid environments is synchronisation: Entra Connect Sync runs every 30 minutes by default, while password hashes travel every two minutes. Alendris uses Entra ID as the identity foundation for every migration, carve-out and Zero Trust project.