Will losing access to Azure affect our Microsoft 365 data?

Question

We currently use Microsoft 365 and sync users and groups from on-prem Active Directory using ADSync. We also have some users that were added as guests in Office 365 as well as groups/teams that were created in the tenant.

We recently received emails about the Access to Azure Active Directory subscription ending, and to back up data before August 16th. To my knowledge, we haven't actually used AAD for anything except for maybe managing MFA for our users. Will we be at risk of losing any data once this expires in August or is there nothing to worry about? Also, will this affect access to Entra ID?

Answer 1

Hello Mark MacGregor,

Thanks for your question.

You should not be at risk of losing your Microsoft 365 data or core functionality. However, I would recommend:

1. Verify you're not using any Azure-specific services that store important data.
2. Check if you're using any Azure AD Plan 1 and 2 features that you might lose access to like MFA
3. Review your Microsoft 365 subscription details.

It's crucial to back up any critical data and ensure you have alternate methods for accessing your Microsoft 365 environment.

You can mark it 'Accept Answer' and 'Upvote' if this helped you

Regards,

Abiola

Answer 2

Generally speaking, you should have nothing to worry about. Said Access to Azure Active Directory subscriptions are something Microsoft provisioned back in the day due to compatibility issues, and had no resources registered with them. Unless you have manually provisioned any resource to said subscription, no data will be lost and you can continue using your services as before.

Answer 3

@Mark MacGregor

Thank you for posting this in Microsoft Q&A.

No, there will be no impact on the Office 365 resources if Azure subscription gets expired. Usually, Azure subscription is required when you try to create any resources.

Entra ID has a separate portal for itself. Office 365 is just an application which is added in Entra ID.

Now, to access any service in Office 365, there is a license that is required. Now till you have a valid license; you can access office 365 applications without any issues.

If the Azure subscription gets expired, you will not be able to create any resources in Azure, like, VM's, storage accounts etc.

But Azure AD/Entra ID works on a separate license. To access complete features in Entra ID you need P1 or P2 licenses.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

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