Describe Azure Active Directory

  • 2 minutes

Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), part of Microsoft Entra, is Microsoft’s cloud-based identity and access management service. Organizations use Azure AD to enable their employees, guests, and others to sign in and access the resources they need, including:

  • Internal resources, such as apps on your corporate network and intranet, and cloud apps developed by your own organization.
  • External services, such as Microsoft Office 365, the Azure portal, and any SaaS applications used by your organization.

Azure AD simplifies the way organizations manage authorization and access by providing a single identity system for their cloud and on-premises applications. Azure AD can be synchronized with your existing on-premises Active Directory, synchronized with other directory services, or used as a standalone service.

Azure AD also allows organizations to securely enable the use of personal devices, such as mobiles and tablets, and enable collaboration with business partners and customers.

Azure Active Directory works with cloud apps such as M365, devices, and on-premises applications

Azure AD is used by IT admins to control access to corporate apps and resources, based on business requirements. It can also be set up to require multi-factor authentication when accessing important organizational resources. Azure AD can be used to automate user provisioning between an existing Windows Server AD and cloud apps, including Microsoft 365. Finally, Azure AD provides powerful tools to automatically help protect user identities and credentials and to meet an organization’s access governance requirements.

Developers use Azure AD as a standards-based approach for adding single sign-on (SSO) to their apps, so that users can sign in with their pre-existing credentials. Azure AD also provides APIs that allow developers to build personalized app experiences using existing organizational data.

Subscribers to Azure services, Microsoft 365, or Dynamics 365 automatically have access to Azure AD. Users of these services can take advantage of included Azure AD services and can also enhance their Azure AD implementation by upgrading to Azure AD Premium licenses.