How Entra ID Elevates Azure AD’s Functionality: What You Need to Know to Maximize Its New Features

Managing identities and safeguarding access to sensitive data has never been more critical in today’s interconnected workplace. Entra ID, the latest iteration of Microsoft’s Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution, introduces advanced functionalities and improved security features to streamline identity management.

This blog explores how Entra ID enhances the features of Azure AD and why understanding these improvements is crucial to maximizing its benefits. We’ll also discuss why protecting your Entra ID – the gateway to your digital assets – is a must to ensure the integrity and privacy of your systems and sensitive data.

Are Entra ID and Azure AD the Same?

Entra ID is an evolution of Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), which itself is an evolution of Microsoft Active Directory.

Microsoft rebranded Azure AD to Entra ID to streamline and unify its IAM solutions under the Microsoft Entra product family in mid-2023. This change aims to make it easier for users to navigate and use the expanded capabilities of the Microsoft Entra portfolio, which includes various new identity and secure access products.

From Active Directory to Entra ID: The Evolution of Microsoft’s IAM

Microsoft’s journey in IAM began with Active Directory (AD), a cornerstone for many organizations’ IT infrastructure. AD provided a centralized and standardized system for network management, user authentication, and authorization. However, as cloud computing gained traction, the need for a more flexible and scalable solution became evident.

Enter Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). Launched in 2010, Azure AD extended the capabilities of traditional AD to the cloud. It offered seamless integration with Microsoft’s cloud services, enabling single sign-on (SSO) for thousands of applications, both on-premises and in the cloud. Azure AD also introduced advanced security features like multi-factor authentication (MFA) and conditional access policies, significantly enhancing data security.

The latest evolution in this IAM journey is Entra ID. Building on the robust foundation of Azure AD, Entra ID introduces new functionalities and improvements designed to meet the modern demands of identity management. Entra ID not only retains the core features of Azure AD, but also brings in advanced capabilities to streamline and secure identity management further.

Upgrading Azure AD: Entra ID’s New Features

Here are some of Entra ID’s key features that show how it levels up the functionalities of Azure AD:

1. Enhanced Security

Entra ID offers advanced security features such as adaptive authentication, which uses machine learning to analyze user behavior and detect anomalies in real-time. This helps prevent unauthorized access and potential security breaches.

2. Improved User Experience

With Entra ID, users benefit from a more seamless and intuitive experience. Features like passwordless authentication and single sign-on (SSO) reduce the friction associated with logging into multiple applications, enhancing productivity.

3. Scalability

Entra ID is designed to scale effortlessly with your organization’s growth. Whether you have a small team or a global enterprise, Entra ID can handle the increasing number of users and applications without compromising performance.

4. Comprehensive Identity Governance

Entra ID provides robust tools for identity governance, including automated workflows for user provisioning and de-provisioning, ensuring that access rights are always up-to-date and compliant with organizational policies.

5. Integration with Third-Party Applications

Entra ID supports integration with a wide range of third-party applications, making it easier to manage identities across different platforms and services. This interoperability ensures that your IAM solution is versatile and adaptable to various business needs.

6. Advanced Analytics and Reporting

Entra ID includes powerful analytics and reporting tools that provide insights into user activity, access patterns, and potential security threats. These insights help administrators make informed decisions and proactively address issues.

By understanding these benefits, organizations can leverage Entra ID to strengthen their security posture, improve user experience, and streamline identity management processes. The following section discusses the crucial need to safeguard your Entra ID.

Why You Need to Ensure Robust Protection for Your Entra ID

According to the threat landscape trends outlined in the Microsoft Digital Defense Report, threats are projected to escalate as the rate of data growth outpaces organizations’ capability to efficiently manage and protect their data. Notably, the report found a tenfold surge in password-based attacks against cloud identities in the first quarter of 2023 versus the prior quarter, particularly targeting Microsoft cloud identities.

Entra ID is critical to any organization’s digital workplace. It manages identities and access to sensitive data and resources across various applications in a multi-cloud environment. As the gateway to your valuable digital assets, your Entra ID has to be safeguarded for the following reasons:

1. Security Risks

Entra ID is susceptible to accidental or unintentional changes that can compromise security and disrupt operations. Modifications to user or group properties can impact app access and functionality, causing user frustration and business disruption. Additionally, poor configurations may grant inappropriate access, posing significant security risks. For example, In April 2023, Microsoft identified malicious state actors who were able to leverage compromised and misconfigured Azure AD accounts that had global administrator privileges to perform destructive actions on customer environments.

2. Configuration Drift

Unintended access due to configuration drift is a concern, especially since compromised credentials are a common entry point for cloud intrusions. Therefore, maintaining the principle of least privilege is essential.

3. Recovery Challenges

Entra ID’s mutable permissions can result in irreversible data loss, as Microsoft does not provide item-level restore beyond 30 days. Recovery can take up to 48 hours, affecting productivity and exposing the organization to threats. Recreating permissions from scratch is slow and risky, potentially overlooking critical security measures.

Proactive measures such as implementing comprehensive backup and recovery strategies are vital to protect Entra ID and ensure secure, uninterrupted operations.

Get Superior Protection for Entra ID with AvePoint Cloud Backup

Organizations need to establish their cyber resilience to handle the risks and challenges we discussed. Unfortunately, there is no native backup option for Entra ID, so if a data incident were to take place, you’ll need to have a comprehensive backup and restore solution to keep downtime to a minimum and ensure business continuity.

AvePoint Cloud Backup helps you take a proactive approach to ensuring solid protection for your Entra ID by tackling a wide range of your Entra ID challenges, including:

1. Addressing Security Risks

AvePoint Cloud Backup allows you to quickly identify changes in user permissions with backup comparisons. These comparisons are crucial in determining where excessive permissions have been granted, and reverting them doesn’t limit valid user activity.

2. Rectifying Configuration Drift

Across Entra ID identities, Intune, Microsoft 365 Defender, and Exchange policies, an organization can have hundreds, if not thousands, of unique configurations. Any configuration drift can be hard to detect, and without proper documentation, it would be difficult to revert to ideal settings. With AvePoint Cloud Backup, you can easily discover any drift and roll back your settings with granular precision.

3. Overcoming Recovery Challenges

AvePoint Cloud Backup extends protection beyond the limited 30-day retention. Store as many copies in immutable and logically air-gapped storage for however long your organization’s retention policies require. This solution allows for on-demand, flexible recovery to original or alternative locations, minimizing downtime and maintaining productivity. By securing all related services to Microsoft Entra ID, AvePoint ensures quick and tailored data recovery, safeguarding against data loss and unauthorized changes that could leave your organization vulnerable to attack.

Let AvePoint help you address your Entra ID challenges with confidence. Learn more about our Entra ID Backup Solutions today.