Microsoft Entra ID (formerly known as Microsoft Azure Active Directory or Azure AD) is a
cloud-based
Cloud computing is "a paradigm for enabling network access to a scalable and elastic pool of shareable physical or virtual resources with self-service provisioning and administration on-demand," according to International Organization for ...
identity and access management (IAM) solution. It is a directory and identity management service that operates in the cloud and offers authentication and authorization services to various
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
services, such as
Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 (previously called Office 365) is a product family of productivity software, collaboration and Cloud computing, cloud-based Software as a service, services owned by Microsoft. It encompasses online services such as Outlook.com, One ...
,
Dynamics 365,
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure, or just Azure ( /ˈæʒər, ˈeɪʒər/ ''AZH-ər, AY-zhər'', UK also /ˈæzjʊər, ˈeɪzjʊər/ ''AZ-ure, AY-zure''), is the cloud computing platform developed by Microsoft. It has management, access and development of ...
and third-party services. Entra ID provides users with
single sign-on experience, called "work or school accounts", regardless of whether their applications are cloud-based or on-premises.
Entra ID offers various authentication methods, including
password-based,
multi-factor,
smart card
A smart card (SC), chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC or IC card), is a card used to control access to a resource. It is typically a plastic credit card-sized card with an Embedded system, embedded integrated circuit (IC) chip. Many smart ...
, and
certificate-based authentication. It also includes several security features, such as
conditional access
Conditional access (CA) is a term commonly used in relation to software and to digital television systems. Conditional access is an evaluation to ensure the person who is seeking access to content is authorized to access the content. Access is man ...
policies,
risk-based authentication, and identity protection.
On July 11, 2023, Microsoft announced the renaming of Azure AD to ''Microsoft Entra ID'' to improve consistency with other Microsoft cloud products. The name change took place on July 15, 2023.
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See also
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Microsoft Entra Connect
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Active Directory
Active Directory (AD) is a directory service developed by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. Windows Server operating systems include it as a set of processes and services. Originally, only centralized domain management used Active Direct ...
References
Further reading
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External links
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{{Microsoft-software-stub
Active Directory
Directory services
Microsoft cloud services