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it_user1548177 - PeerSpot reviewer
Product Manager/Architect at a retailer with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Apr 8, 2021
We can see all facets of the business, providing us more visibility
Pros and Cons
  • "It enhanced our end user experience quite a bit. Instead of the days of having to contact the service desk with challenges for choosing their password, users can go in and do it themselves locally, regardless of where they are in the world. This has certainly made it a better experience accessing their applications. Previously, a lot of times, they had to remember multiple usernames and passwords for different systems. This solution brings it all together, using a single sign-on experience."
  • "It definitely has improved our security posture, certainly from providing that second factor of authentication, and it enhanced our end user experience quite a bit by giving them self-service password reset and a single sign-on experience instead of having to remember multiple usernames and passwords for different systems."
  • "The thing that is a bit annoying is the inability to nest groups. Because we run an Azure hybrid model, we have nested groups on-premise which does not translate well. So, we have written some scripts to kind of work around that. This is a feature request that we have put in previously to be able to use a group that is nested in Active Directory on-premise and have it handled the same way in Azure."
  • "The thing that is a bit annoying is the inability to nest groups."

What is our primary use case?

We run in a hybrid model. We have our Active Directory on-premise directory services that we provide. We basically went to Azure so we could provide additional capabilities, like single sign-on and multi-factor authentication.

We are running in a hybrid environment. It is not completely cloud-native. We sync our on-premise directory to the cloud.

How has it helped my organization?

It definitely has improved our security posture, certainly from providing that second factor of authentication. It provides more visibility. We can see all facets of the business, e.g., when people are logging into our resources. This solution makes it highly visible to us.

It enhanced our end user experience quite a bit. Instead of the days of having to contact the service desk with challenges for choosing their password, users can go in and do it themselves locally, regardless of where they are in the world. This has certainly made it a better experience accessing their applications. Previously, a lot of times, they had to remember multiple usernames and passwords for different systems. This solution brings it all together, using a single sign-on experience. 

Is this specific to Azure? No. We have had other IdPs that gave us that same experience, but we have more apps that are integrated into Azure today from single sign-on than we had previously. Having that one handy "my apps" page for folks to go to as their one source for being able to gain access to all their apps is a much better experience from my point of view.

What is most valuable?

  • Azure Application Proxy
  • Single sign-on capabilities for SAML
  • OAuth integrated applications
  • The multi-factor authentication piece was desirable.
  • Defender for Identity, as of recently.
  • Some of the services, like Microsoft MCAS solution. 

These features offer additional layers of security, which is kind of what we were looking for. 

Some of the self-service password utilities certainly helped, given the scenario of the world today with COVID-19 and lockdowns. We certainly benefited from being able to say, "Have our users changed their password remotely." When they connect to the VPN, then sync them back up with the domain. So, that was very beneficial for us as well.

What needs improvement?

The thing that is a bit annoying is the inability to nest groups. Because we run an Azure hybrid model, we have nested groups on-premise which does not translate well. So, we have written some scripts to kind of work around that. This is a feature request that we have put in previously to be able to use a group that is nested in Active Directory on-premise and have it handled the same way in Azure. That is something that is actively being worked on. 

One of the other things that we felt could be improved upon is from an Application Proxy perspective. We have applications native to SSH, and we want to be able to do app proxy to TCP/IP. It sounds like that is actively on the roadmap now, which was amazing. It makes us very excited that it is coming, because we do have use cases with that as well.

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For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it for a few years now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability has been pretty rock solid. For the first time, we have seen some instability over the last month. I know there were some issues with Microsoft in terms of one of their stacks. That was something that they addressed pretty quickly though. We were appraised of the issues by our technical account manager, so we were in the know. We weren't left in the dark when something happened, and it was remediated pretty quickly.

We have about five to six folks whose main role is to manage identity, and that is my team at the company. However, we also have administrators all over the globe, handling service desk tickets, e.g., resetting passwords. There are about 30 or 40 people, if you include that level of things. However, from a global admin perspective, we probably have a total of eight people.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is certainly scalable. Whether you are connecting to a local on-premise directory services organization, or if you are using B2B and B2C. This is part of the vision: At some point, leverage some of the B2B features that we have appointed to us in Azure, which we don't do today. This is certainly something that we are looking at internally as a potential for moving forward. 

We are managing 7,000 to 8,000 users within Azure AD.

This is room for growth.  

How are customer service and support?

We are part of the DPP program. So, we talk to the identity folks at Microsoft on a weekly basis, who are amazing. It has been such a great experience with those folks.

The technical support that we get through the GTP program is amazing. Microsoft Premier Support is pretty good as well. We have called them, but typically we don't have the type of issues that we are calling all the time for. We have a pretty savvy team, and just being plugged into the GTP team has helped us understand new features which are coming out, whether we are part of an active preview or attending an evening where they are doing a webinar to introduce new features to us. The cool thing about that is you do have that line of sight if you need to ask questions or get technical answers. Between our technical account manager and our GTP partner, we do relatively well without having to open too many cases.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We had a different identity provider at one point in time. At the time that we were looking at identity providers, Microsoft really wasn't there from a technical perspective. They are there now, far surpassing some of the things that we have done in the past. So, it was a no-brainer for us. We are very much a Microsoft organization. Primarily, it is the operating system of choice, not only for endpoint service, but it was a pretty good deal to move over and leverage some of the licensing and whatnot for our end users.

From an IdP perspective, we had Okta for quite some time. We had some limitations with Okta that we were looking at Azure to handle. I got pulled in kind of mid-project. I am not really sure when the decision was made, or how it was made, but certainly cost was a factor. We were already licensed for a lot of what was needed to go with Azure, where we were paying Okta separate licensing fees. So, we saved money by switching from Okta to Azure.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup would have been complex if it had not been for being part of the GTP program. We have gotten a lot of value out of that program in terms of cross-training our team members, catching up on any new features that come out as well as any of the gotchas that the Microsoft team has seen. So, those have benefited us quite a bit.

The deployment probably took six to eight months. Standing up Azure and sinking your directory services, like creating a connector, takes minutes. We could stand that up in the day. What took time was taking all of the applications that we have throughout the environment, migrating them across and doing integrations with single sign-on. You need to have conversations with different application owners as well as potentially pulling in some vendors to do some of the configuration. There may be some apps which are not as straightforward as others, but we thought that the experience was pretty straightforward (to a point) where we can handle a lot of the work ourselves.

What about the implementation team?

When we needed Microsoft, we were able to reach out, talk to them, and get the assistance that we needed. That was super beneficial to us.

What was our ROI?

There are a lot less calls to our service desk. For some of the traditional, "Hey, I need to reset my password," or "Hey, I'm locked out." So, we're seeing a lot of that self-service, gaining access to the different apps, and having it all be integrated with Azure will take away some of the headache. For example, "I don't know what my password is for GitHub," or, "I don't know what password is for Slack." We are like, "Well, it's the same password that you use every day." So, that has dropped call volume.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

If you have a different IdP today, I would take a close look at what your licensing looks like, then reevaluate the licensing that you have with Microsoft 365, and see if you're covered for some of this other stuff. Folks sometimes don't realize that, "Oh, I'm licensed for that service in Azure." This becomes one of those situations where you have the "aha" moment, "Oh, I didn't know we can do that. Alright, let's go down this road." Then, they start to have conversations with Microsoft to see what they can gain. I would recommend that they work closely with their TAM, just to make sure that they are getting the right level of service. They may just not be aware of what is available to them.

We look to gain new features when updating licensing. Every time we go to negotiate an enterprise agreement, we are looking at:

  • What are the benefits?
  • What are we getting back from Microsoft?

    They are very good at working with us to get what we are looking for in terms of working on packaging for pricing.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not evaluate other options. The decision was pretty easy. When we initially looked at Okta years ago, Microsoft was also one of the folks that we looked at. Okta was a little more advanced than some of the gallery apps. Then, Microsoft made a huge play and added more gallery-type apps. That helped us quite a bit to move things along.

What other advice do I have?

For others using Azure ID, take cookie online training. They are widely available, free, and give you a very good idea of what path you need to go to. So, if you want to take some professional training to become a guru, then you know what classes to go take and the fundamentals that you need to take before you get into that class. So, I highly recommend taking the video term.

I come from an Active Directory background for more than 20 years. Coming into Azure was actually great. We had somebody leave the company who was managing it, and they said, "Hey David, I know you are working for this other pocket of the business. How would you like to come back to the identity platform?" I said, "Absolutely." So, it was easier for me to come up to speed in several of the advanced areas of Azure, e.g., conditional access policies. We are starting down a zero trust methodology, which has been very exciting for me.

I would give it a solid eight (out of 10). It has a lot of the features that we are looking at. I don't think there are any tools out there that will give you that one magical wand with everything that you are looking for, but certainly this comes close. Microsoft has been working with us to help us through some of the new features and additions that are coming.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
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it_user1538829 - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
Apr 8, 2021
A central point for authentication, providing cloud lock-in for our company
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a central point where we provide the cloud lock-in for our company. We focus the multi-factor authentication within Azure AD before jumping to other clouds or software as a service offerings. So, it is the central point when you need to access something for our company within the cloud. You go to Azure AD and can authenticate there, then you move from there to the target destination or the single sign-on."
  • "The most valuable feature is the possibility to create multi-tenant applications alone, or in combination with Azure Active Directory B2C."
  • "It would be awesome to have a feature where you can see the permissions of a user in all their Azure subscriptions. Right now, you have to select a user, then you have to select the subscription to see which permissions the user has in their selected subscriptions. Sometimes, you just want to know, "Does that user have any permissions in any subscriptions?" That would be awesome if that would be available via the portal."
  • "The user administration has room for improvement because some parts are not available within the Azure AD portal, but they are available within the Microsoft 365 portal."

What is our primary use case?

The use case for this solution is the access to Office 365, Azure subscriptions, and several software as a service platforms as well as other SaaS-developed applications that we provide access to, such as, OpenID Connect, OAuth, or SAML.

How has it helped my organization?

It is a central point where we provide the cloud lock-in for our company. We focus the multi-factor authentication within Azure AD before jumping to other clouds or software as a service offerings. So, it is the central point when you need to access something for our company within the cloud. You go to Azure AD and can authenticate there, then you move from there to the target destination or the single sign-on.

Azure AD added a different layer. We were able to add multi-factor authentication for cloud applications, which was not possible before. We also may reduce our VPN footprint due to the Azure AD application proxy. We have a central point where we have registered our software as a service applications that we obtain from other providers or the applications that we host ourselves.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the possibility to create multi-tenant applications alone, or in combination with Azure Active Directory B2C. So, you can provide access to applications for your external partners without having to care about the accounts of external partners, because they will stick it in there as an AD tenant. That is the feature that I like the most.

The solution has features that have helped improve our security posture: 

  • A tagging mechanism that we use for identifying who is the owner of an application registration. 
  • Conditional access and multi-factor authentication, which are adding a lot to security. 
  • The privileged identity management feature that has arisen off privileged access management. This is helping a lot when providing access to certain roles just-in-time. 

They are also still developing several other features that will help us.

It does affect the end user experience. It depends on where they are. When they are within the corporate network, then they already have a second factor that is automatically assigned to them. When they are outside of the company, that is when they have to provide a second factor. That is mostly a SMS message. Now, with the Microsoft Authenticator app that you can install on your mobile phone, we are shifting towards that. This has reduced errors because you may just say that you confirm a message on your mobile phone instead of typing the six-digit code, hoping that you are still in time, and that you entered it correctly. So, it does affect our employees. We try to be up-to-date there.

Mostly, it affects security. It is an obstacle that you have to climb. For example, if you have to enter the code in from the SMS message, then you have to wait for the SMS message to arrive and copy the code, or you have to transfer the code from the SMS message into the field. We reduce that workload for employees by having them be able to receive a message on their phone, then confirm that message. So, security is less of an obstacle, and it is more natural.

What needs improvement?

The user administration has room for improvement because some parts are not available within the Azure AD portal, but they are available within the Microsoft 365 portal. When I want to assign that to a user, it would be great if that would be available within the Azure AD portal.

It would be awesome to have a feature where you can see the permissions of a user in all their Azure subscriptions. Right now, you have to select a user, then you have to select the subscription to see which permissions the user has in their selected subscriptions. Sometimes, you just want to know, "Does that user have any permissions in any subscriptions?" That would be awesome if that would be available via the portal.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it for more than two years now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is very good. They had a problem recently that was hopefully the exception. 

I am looking forward to the adjustment of the SLA that they increased from 99.9 percent to 99.99 percent. With this increase, which should happen on the first of April (not an April joke), this should be a huge improvement for the visibility towards the world because this is a commitment by Microsoft, saying, "We are taking care of Azure AD." I think that is a very good thing.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

From my point of view, it scales very well. There are different possibilities to take care of it, depending on what you want to achieve. Lately, they introduced something like administration units, where you can achieve that even a bit further to restrict the access of your administrator to a certain group. So, that should be really helpful for even better scaling.

One company has around 50,000 users and another company has around 200 users. For the bigger company, there are several people involved, three to four people. They are taking care of application registrations as well as the Azure AD Connect synchronization to see if there are any errors, then clear those errors. However, it is mostly the application, registration, and configuration of the Azure AD.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is great. We have access to a special unit within Microsoft where we have additional support besides the technical support. So, it has been really good working with Microsoft.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have other tools: 

  • Red Hat SSO
  • OpenID Connect
  • OAuth
  • Azure Domain Federation.

We just removed the Azure Domain Federation (AD FS), thanks to the Azure AD.

How was the initial setup?

Deployment time really depends on how you set up your Azure AD. You might: 

  • Want to set up Azure AD Connect, then the process takes longer. 
  • Just use Azure AD, then the process is much faster. 
  • Directly connect to another source of truth, then there is something in-between. 

It really depends on your situation. I would say it takes between an hour and a week.

What about the implementation team?

For the company, I didn't set it up. I did set it up for myself, but that was a simplified situation and I found the process to be straightforward.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Make sure that you get the most out of your Office 365 licenses for Azure AD. If you have additional concerns for users who don't have an Office 365 license, consider Azure AD Premium P1 and P2. Be aware that you have to evaluate your license usage beforehand.

Consider the usage of Azure AD Premium P1 and P2 when you are not assigning Microsoft or Office 365 licenses. This is really important to get access to good features, like conditional access, privilege identity management, and accessory use.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Azure AD as a nine out of 10.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
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Manager Infrastructure & Architecture at BDO Global
Real User
Apr 7, 2021
Users don't have to remember multiple accounts and passwords since it is all single sign-on
Pros and Cons
  • "It has been very instrumental towards a lot of services we run, especially on the single sign-on side. For example, we have 160 countries that all run their own IT but we still are able to provide users with a single sign-on experience towards global applications. So, they have a certain set of accounts that they get from their local IT department, then they use exactly the same account and credentials to sign into global services. For the user, it has been quite instrumental in that space. It is about efficiency, but also about users not having to remember multiple accounts and passwords since it is all single sign-on. Therefore, the single sign-on experience for us has been the most instrumental for the end user experience."
  • "Compared to other big vendors over the past six years, I think we are close to saving $5 million on FTEs and licensing, which is substantial."
  • "We have a custom solution now running to tie all those Azure ADs together. We use the B2B functionality for that. Improvements are already on the roadmap for Azure AD in that area. I think they will make it easier to work together between two different tenants in Azure AD, because normally one tenant is a security boundary. For example, company one has a tenant and company two has a tenant, and then you can do B2B collaboration between those, but it is still quite limited. For our use case, it is enough currently. However, if we want to extend the collaboration even further, then we need an easier way to collaborate between two tenants, but I think that is already on the roadmap of Azure AD anyway."
  • "We have a custom solution now running to tie all those Azure ADs together. We use the B2B functionality for that."

What is our primary use case?

BDO is a network of firms and a firm is what we call a country. So, we are present in about 160 countries. I am involved in BDO Global, which is not really a firm in the sense that we don't deal directly with clients, but BDO Global hosts IT services for all those 160 countries. A couple of those solutions are a worldwide audit solution that our firms use for financial audits for customers. We have a globally running portal solution, which firms are using to collaborate with our customers directly. All these services are basically based on Azure AD for authentication and authorization. This has been a lifesaver for us, because BDO firms are legally independent, so, we don't have a single identity store worldwide, like other big companies potentially do. We created an IAM solution based on Azure AD that ties all 160 dispersed identity stores back into one. We use that to give access to our services that we run globally.

Azure AD doesn't really give you a version. You just need to take the version as-is because it is a service that Microsoft delivers as a SaaS service. So, we don't have a lot of influence over the version that we use.

How has it helped my organization?

Besides tying together all authentications for our 160 countries, it has also been instrumental in getting the collaboration going between our firm countries since normally they are quite isolated. Also, their IT firms are quite isolated. So, Azure AD has made sure that we can collaborate with each other in multiple different systems: the global portal, the Audit application, and Office 365. This allows us to collaborate closer together, even though we are still separated as different countries.

Because it is an identity store, it handles all our authentication. We also use it with a combination of conditional access, which is a way to limit people's authentication or authorization based on where they are, the compliance of their device, and on a whole bunch of other variables that we can set. So, it definitely has been influential as well on the security side. Because it is a SaaS, you have central management over that. You can see all the logins and get reports on who signs in from where. 

There is a lot of artificial intelligence in Azure AD that can monitor behavior of users. If users behave in a strange way, then the authentication can be blocked. For example, if you have a user logging in from China, but it looks like the same user is logging in from America just a few seconds apart. That is a seemingly risky behavior that Azure AD flags for you, then you can block that behavior or have the user provide you with a second factor of authentication. So, there are a lot of security features that come with Azure AD too.

What is most valuable?

In our scenario, we use a lot of the business-to-business (B2B) features in Azure AD, which allows us to tie multiple Azure AD instances together. That is what we heavily use because every firm or country has their own Azure AD instance. We tie those together by using the B2B functionality in Azure AD. So, that is the most valuable part for us right now.

It has been very instrumental towards a lot of services we run, especially on the single sign-on side. For example, we have 160 countries that all run their own IT but we still are able to provide users with a single sign-on experience towards global applications. So, they have a certain set of accounts that they get from their local IT department, then they use exactly the same account and credentials to sign into global services. For the user, it has been quite instrumental in that space. It is about efficiency, but also about users not having to remember multiple accounts and passwords since it is all single sign-on. Therefore, the single sign-on experience for us has been the most instrumental for the end user experience.

We are using a whole bunch of features:

  • We are using privileged identity management, which is also an Azure AD feature. This allows us to give just-in-time, just enough access to privileged accounts. For example, normally you have a named account and you get a few roles based on that named account. If that is a very privileged role, that role always sits on your account all the time. When your account is compromised and the role is on the account, the people that compromise your account have that role. With privileged identity management, I can assign a role to a certain account for a specific amount of time and also for a specific amount of privileges, e.g., I can give somebody global administrator access, then revoke that after an hour automatically. So, when his/her account gets compromised, that role is not present anymore. 
  • We use conditional access. 
  • We use access reviews, which is basically a mechanism to access reviews on Azure AD groups automatically. So, the group owner gets a notification that they need to review their group member access, and they use that to do reviews. That is all audited and locked. For our ISO process, this is a very convenient mechanism to audit your group access.

What needs improvement?

We have a custom solution now running to tie all those Azure ADs together. We use the B2B functionality for that. Improvements are already on the roadmap for Azure AD in that area. I think they will make it easier to work together between two different tenants in Azure AD, because normally one tenant is a security boundary. For example, company one has a tenant and company two has a tenant, and then you can do B2B collaboration between those, but it is still quite limited. For our use case, it is enough currently. However, if we want to extend the collaboration even further, then we need an easier way to collaborate between two tenants, but I think that is already on the roadmap of Azure AD anyway.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it for about six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability has been very good because it is an underpinning service for many things that Microsoft does:

  • The underpinning identity store for Office 365.
  • The underpinning identities over Azure services. 

So, the stability has been very good. We haven't had major issues with Azure AD so far.

On the global side, we have around two to three FTEs aligned to this. On the firm side, in the countries, FTE's are aligned to managing identity as well. These FTE numbers differ per firm. In our case, there are about two to three FTEs who are aligned to this. That is normally probably not what you would need, but since we run some custom code around this to be able to do the B2B process, we need about two to three FTEs.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is not a problem. We don't have to control that because Microsoft does it as a SaaS. However, we have never seen any real performance issues on the authentication stuff. I think they handle that under the hood. Since it is such an important service for them, they keep the scalability quite well. We don't have any scaling concerns. We also can control the scale. It is basically taken care of because it is a SaaS.

It is fully deployed to about 80,000 people worldwide.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have Microsoft Premier Support, which has been quite good. It is quick. We are mostly into the engineering group quite quickly, and that has been good. I think they also have non-paid support, which has somewhat lower response time SLAs, but we have Premier Support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Before, we only used local Active Directories because we were not in the cloud. Currently, in BDO Global, we are 100 percent cloud. So, we use Azure AD only.

We haven't run any other solutions than Azure AD.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is a relatively straightforward process because Microsoft gives you a lot of guidance on how to do it. They also have a tie-in with local Active Directory. So, if you are running a local Active Directory, you can easily integrate it with Azure AD. It is also one of the more powerful features of the solution because it is a SaaS solution, but you can still tie it in with your local identity store. That makes it quite powerful because many companies, before they go to the cloud, have a local identity store, e.g., Active Directory. Microsoft has a very easy process and some tooling to make it integrate with Azure AD, so your local identities, you can still be leading, but you can sync all those identities up to Azure AD quite easily and keep the identity storage up to date.

We are exclusively using Azure AD in BDO Global. In other BDO countries, most countries use local Active Directory in combination with Azure AD.

If you look at it from a BDO country perspective, you have everything up and running in about a week, if not quicker. In our global setup, that took a little bit longer, because we had to create a solution to synchronize multiple Azure ADs towards the global one. We did that via B2B, so our setup took a little bit longer as it also involved some custom development. If you only deploy Azure AD from a single company perspective, then it should be a relatively quick process.

Deployment is not that hard because it is a SaaS solution, so you don't have to deploy any infrastructure. All that is taken care of by the solution itself. It is a matter of configuring first-time use, then setting up a sync between your own identity store and Azure AD, which is quite an easy process. If you read through the documentation, then you can have that sync running in about a day.

What about the implementation team?

We mostly did the implementation and the custom coding ourselves in combination with people from Microsoft.

What was our ROI?

The ROI has been quite good because we looked at competitors as well, Ping and Okta, but their license fees were quite high. Also, Azure AD can meet all our use cases. In the beginning, we only used the free version, so that was quite cheap to run. We had some custom code that we needed to develop, but that was due to our specific use case. Overall, the return on investment has been very positive. The solution is not very expensive to run. It is quite stable. For us, it brings a whole lot of capabilities to provide people with a single sign-on experience across the world.

Compared to other big vendors over the past six years, I think we are close to saving $5 million on FTEs and licensing, which is substantial.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

MS has a free version of Azure AD as well. So, if you don't do a lot of advanced stuff, then you can use the free version, which is no cost at all because it is underpinning Office 365. 

Some of the services that I mentioned, like conditional access, privileged identity management, and access reviews, come with a certain premium license per user. We negotiated those license fees in what we call a GEA. This is a global Microsoft contract that we have. So, the pricing seems to be quite fair. If I compare it to its competitors, Azure AD is a lot cheaper.

Because Microsoft gives it to you as a SaaS, so there are no infrastructure costs whatsoever that you need to incur. If you use the free version, then it is free. If you use the advanced features (that we use), it is a license fee per user. 

Premier Support is an added cost, but they do it based on the amount of services that you consume. We don't have it specifically for Azure AD because we run a lot of Microsoft technologies. We have an overall Premier Support contract, which is an additional cost. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at many different vendors for identity because our identity store is quite complicated within BDO, because you don't have that single identity store across all the countries like you see in many other global companies. So, we had a strategy. We looked at other products that could potentially do the same. However, the features that Azure AD gave us the option to do this as we wanted to do it. The other tools that we looked at, Okta and PingFederate, were not able to do the same thing for us back in the day. This is especially because we have many different identity stores within the BDO countries that have to be under the control of those countries. BDO Global cannot and is not allowed to control those identities. We need to allow the countries to control those identities themselves, but we still need a way to tie those altogether on the global side. Azure AD was the only solution that could do that for us.

From a BDO Global perspective, we don't. The firms and countries own their identities and the management around them, and they also need full control on those identities. We as BDO Global are not even allowed to control those, but we do need to provide them with single sign-on experiences. So, Azure AD is the service that allow us to do that. 

Our primary use case was about that control, which is a very specific use case because countries need to control their own identity stores and we are not allowed to control that from a global perspective. Specifically, the control requirement and still being able to have that single sign-on experience led us to Azure AD. The other big vendors that we looked at couldn't do that.

What other advice do I have?

This solution is a prerequisite with some of the bigger Microsoft services, so if you want to use Office 365, Dynamics, etc., then you need Azure AD. However, it is also quite good to use for other services as well because they are currently supporting tens of thousands of other applications that you can sign into with an Azure account. So, it is not only for Microsoft Office, and I think that is probably a misconception in many people's heads. You can use it for many other cloud services as well as a single sign-on solution. My biggest point would be that it can be used for Microsoft services, but people tend to forget that you can also use it for many other services. In that sense, it is just an identity store that you can use across many services, not only Microsoft.

It continues to be one of our primary fundamental services around authentication, so we will keep using it in the future. We are planning to reduce the amount of custom code that we need to tie all these things together. Microsoft has a few things on the roadmap coming up there. We hope that we can decrease the amount of custom code that we need to run around this. The custom code is mostly about synchronizing identities from 160 countries to us. Microsoft will bring some stuff out-of-the-box there so we can hopefully decrease the custom code. It is a fundamental solution for us for identity and single sign-on, so we definitely plan to keep using it.

The biggest thing we learned is that the security boundaries are shifting from what used to be networks, firewalls, and data centers that you owned yourself. The security boundary is more shifting to identity in these cases because people are using cloud services. They use a single identity, and in this case, Azure identity to sign into those cloud services. You are not always controlling where people are signing in from anymore because those services live in the cloud. Where you used to have servers running in your data center, you had far more control on the network, firewalls, and all that stuff to keep those services secure. You now have to rely much more on the identity because the services are running in the cloud. You don't always have control over the network, so people can sign in from every device.

The security boundary is really shifting towards identity. Azure AD gives you a lot of options to secure your identity in a proper way. We use multifactor authentication, the conditional access piece, and privileged identity management, which are all services that Azure AD provides and quite hard to implement on a traditional Active Directory. 

I would rate this solution as 10 out of 10. It is instrumental to everything that we do.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Victor Obahor - PeerSpot reviewer
Cyber Security Specialist at TechForce Cyber
Real User
Oct 22, 2024
Effortless privilege management with good policies and restriction controls
Pros and Cons
  • "The features I find most valuable are conditional access, privilege management, and dynamic groups."
  • "Microsoft often changes settings, and many features are scattered."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case for Microsoft Entra ID is enterprise or company-wide system management. It allows us to join most systems, regardless of their location, to the active directory of the company's domain. This is particularly useful for managing PCs for remote workers and securing their devices.

How has it helped my organization?

Microsoft Entra ID has made managing users easier, as well as sending out policies and implementing restrictions. It simplifies the management of IT infrastructure.

What is most valuable?

The features I find most valuable are conditional access, privilege management, and dynamic groups. Conditional access allows us to set specific policies for security purposes. Privilege management enables us to assign specific roles to users, such as user administration, without giving everyone admin rights.

What needs improvement?

Microsoft often changes settings, and many features are scattered. It would be helpful if settings were grouped under a specific category, like authentication, to make it easier for beginners. The platform can be overwhelming for new users, so consistent organization of features is needed.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Microsoft Entra ID for a good part of five years, migrating over from when it was previously named Azure Active Directory.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There can be outages or times when the portal is unresponsive, which is why I would rate the stability a seven.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have not encountered any issues with scalability; it is for everyone. So, the scalability rating is ten out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

I haven't raised any tickets with technical support, as I was part of the Microsoft technical support group.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No other solutions were used previously.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward due to my experience, however, I would rate it a six or seven out of ten for someone new. Issues arise if users make incorrect choices during the out-of-box experience.

What about the implementation team?

The deployment requires one person to create user profiles and assign relevant permissions, though two to three people may be needed for advanced features.

What was our ROI?

Business process-wise, Microsoft Entra ID makes managing users and IT infrastructure easier.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing is fair compared to other products, and I would rate it a five out of ten for value for money.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

No other solutions were evaluated.

What other advice do I have?

For seamless integrations with other services, Microsoft Entra ID is likely the easiest tool. I would recommend it to others.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer2315721 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Infrastructure at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Dec 20, 2023
Improves organizational security and comes with conditional access feature
Pros and Cons
  • "The tool's most valuable feature is conditional access."
  • "The product needs to improve its support."

How has it helped my organization?

Microsoft Entra ID has made our organization more secure. 

What is most valuable?

The tool's most valuable feature is conditional access. 

What needs improvement?

The product needs to improve its support.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with the product for five years. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Microsoft Entra ID is stable. 

How are customer service and support?

The product needs to improve support. There are many steps before you get to someone who can solve the issues. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

Microsoft Entra ID's deployment is easy. 

What other advice do I have?

Microsoft Entra ID helps save money since you don't need a second MFA solution. I rate it a nine out of ten. 

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer2315649 - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Systems Engineer at a non-profit with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Dec 14, 2023
An easy to use solution to manage single sign-on
Pros and Cons
  • "The product is easy to use."
  • "Microsoft Entra ID should improve workload identities. It should set conditional access."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for single sign-on. 

What is most valuable?

The product is easy to use. 

What needs improvement?

Microsoft Entra ID should improve workload identities. It should set conditional access. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the product for six years. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

My company has 5000 end users. I rate the product's scalability a nine out of ten. 

How are customer service and support?

The tool's support is not good. However, the documentation is good. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Negative

How was the initial setup?

The tool's deployment is easy. 

What about the implementation team?

We relied on two resources for deployment. 

What was our ROI?

I have seen ROI with the tool's use. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution was fairly priced the last time I checked the costs. 

What other advice do I have?

Microsoft Entra ID has helped us save money. It also helped us save 70 percent of the time. I rate it a nine out of ten. 

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Alexandru Hagea - PeerSpot reviewer
Network and Security Lead at Accesa
MSP
Oct 15, 2023
Robust with good visibility and control
Pros and Cons
  • "It's pretty easy to implement."
  • "I would like to be able to authenticate Wi-Fi users using the Azure ID"

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution for most of our enterprise identity management. 

How has it helped my organization?

It's improved our company through the security policies. It's helped improve our security posture. 

What is most valuable?

It's pretty easy to implement. In most of the apps nowadays, it has the ability to use multifactor authentication, SSO.

The control is great. It offers good conditional access.

It helps with managing user access via one pane of glass in most cases. 

The security policies we are applying are pretty well structured. 

The solution is nice to use. Microsoft did a good job.

My assessment on Microsoft EntraID admin center for managing all identity and access as our organization. It's great. It's very well organized, pretty straightforward, and easy to use. It's not just that it's easy to use, it's very intuitive. Everything is easy to find. 

We use Microsoft Entra ID conditional access features and improve the robustness of our zero-trust strategy to verify users. 

The permission management feature is good. 

The visibility and control are very good. The whole intro ID concept is pretty intuitive. Even if you have never used this and you have some experience in IT, you will be able to handle the solution easily.

It's helped our IT department save time. It also helps with speeding up processes. I can't speak to the exact amount of time saved per week, however.

The solution helps the company save money. 

It's positively affected the employee user experience. 

What needs improvement?

It's just been renamed. That said, I can't speak of room for improvement. There may be areas that could be better, however, I haven't thought too much about that. 

I would change the device access a bit. It's very difficult. I would add some features. I would like to be able to authenticate Wi-Fi users using the Azure ID. However, my understanding is it needs to be from both sides, from the vendor that is creating devices for the Wi-Fi and for the networking part and Microsoft. 

For how long have I used the solution?

The company has been using the solution since before I arrived. I have used it for around four or five years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. I've never seen big issues. It's pretty much a stable product. 

Sometimes Microsoft has small issues, however, nothing that would cause the entire company to not be able to work for a whole day. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

More than 1,000 people are currently using the solution. 

It is a scalable solution for sure. 

How are customer service and support?

I've never used technical support. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I've used a few different solutions. Mostly I've used Active Directory. It does the same thing; it has just been renamed. 

How was the initial setup?

I was not a part of the implementation. It was done before I joined the company. 

It may require a bit of maintenance, however, it's not a task that is part of my department. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't deal with pricing. It may state the cost online. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I did not evaluate other options. 

What other advice do I have?

I'm a user.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. I'd advise others to use it. Even the free tier has a lot of features that even a small company would benefit from. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer2266695 - PeerSpot reviewer
Support desk representative at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Real User
Oct 2, 2023
Good support, has a helpful dashboard, and a seamless user experience
Pros and Cons
  • "It's very good at not disrupting the user experience."
  • "Having more training would be quite helpful."

What is our primary use case?

The solution grants users access to various apps built on the portal. 

How has it helped my organization?

There was a lot of logic and a lot of improvement overall in terms of improvement. On the user access side, it improves the company a lot, specifically in regard to security. It really does help with access and protection.

What is most valuable?

My experience so far has been amazing. I'm in the intermediate phase of understanding it. Loading users and creating groups and so forth is very easy. We can also run multifactor authentication.

The dashboard is very good. It's outstanding.

It offers very good support.

The virtual machines you can run through it are great.

We are provided with a single pane of glass for managing user access. It helps provide more insights and creates consistency in the user experience. It works perfectly. Only admins can control access. That makes it safe. If a user requests something, only the admin would be able to assign the permissions.

My assessment of Active Directory's admin center managing all of your identities and access tasks is that it is very effective. 

I do use the verified ID at this time to onboard employees. Onboarding new users is very easy. It's very quick and doesn't affect the users. It's simply sped up the process. It also helps with privacy and control of identity data for remote employees. It's good to have and it assists with security. 

Permission management is quite good. The visibility and control in the clouds are good - at least over Microsoft. 

The product has helped save time for our IT administrators and HR department. It's helped a lot of time. It might save around 70% of our time from an IT admin support perspective.

It's very good at not disrupting the user experience. 

What needs improvement?

I'm still new to the solution. I need to look at the solution more before commenting on what to enhance. 

I do not need any extra features from my side. 

Having more training would be quite helpful. 

Having a faster interface could be helpful.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for two years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We use the solution across multiple locations. We have multiple systems and apps that we built that run through Azure. We have about five people actively using the solution. We only have about seven people in our organization. 

The solution can scale well. I'd rate scalability nine out of ten. 

How are customer service and support?

I've never dealt with technical support. My colleagues have used it and I've heard from another user that the turnaround was almost immediate. My understanding is that it is quite good. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not previously use a different solution. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward. It does not require any maintenance. 

What was our ROI?

I'm not sure if we've saved money specifically using the solution, yet, if that wasn't the case, I'm not sure why we would use it.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We have not evaluated other solutions. 

What other advice do I have?

I'm a customer and end-user.

I don't use the conditional access feature. 

I'd personally recommend the solution to anyone. I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
IT Specialist at Global Biotech Products
Real User
Sep 15, 2023
Improves security and is easy to use for admins
Pros and Cons
  • "The security features, multi-factor authentication, and service management features are valuable."
  • "One thing that they need to improve is the cost."

What is our primary use case?

We use it as the Active Directory on the cloud. We have the systems on-premises and on the cloud. We connect the AD data to Azure. We have a single sign-on service on multi-cloud. We use the single sign-on feature on, for example, AWS.

In terms of the version, we use it as a service, and it is always updated to the latest version. 

How has it helped my organization?

Microsoft Entra ID helps to synchronize information from on-premise Active Directory. There are security features such as multifactor authentication. We can also use a single sign-on to connect with the other application on the cloud. 

It helps our admins to have more security. It is helpful for authentication methods, log checking, and audit trails in case of security concerns. However, it has not saved them time.

Microsoft Entra ID has not helped to save our organization money, but it helps to improve security.

What is most valuable?

The security features, multi-factor authentication, and service management features are valuable.

Microsoft Entra ID provides a single pane of glass for managing user access. Its menus are properly categorized, and they make it easy to use for our work and processes.

What needs improvement?

One thing that they need to improve is the cost. It already has a lot of features, but more protection of the identity would be beneficial for customers.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. In our environment, we mostly have Microsoft solutions such as Microsoft 365, email, OneDrive, SharePoint, Power Apps, etc. Entra ID is deployed across multiple locations for multiple users. We have a Microsoft 365 license for all employees. We have two admins who take care of configuration and monitoring for security and data loss prevention. 

We have plans to increase its usage.

How are customer service and support?

I have not contacted their support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not use any other similar solution previously.

How was the initial setup?

I was not involved in its deployment. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is costly.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others. Overall, I would rate Microsoft Entra ID an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer2251908 - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Director at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Real User
Sep 11, 2023
Provides greater clarity on business operations and enables devices to join Azure AD seamlessly
Pros and Cons
  • "The benefits of using this solution were realized straightaway."

    What is our primary use case?

    Our primary use cases are to join devices to Azure AD.

    How has it helped my organization?

    Entra ID provides more clarity regarding what's happening in the business. The benefits of using this solution were realized straightaway.

    It helped save time for our IT administrators or HR department. Azure ID has positively affected the employee user experience in our organization.

    What is most valuable?

    We use features like a single pane of glass for managing user access to a certain degree. The admin center for managing all identity and access tasks is also good.

    Moreover, we also use the conditional access feature to enforce fine-tuned and adaptive access controls. Any new user would have to go through the MFA process due to the conditional access policy. So no one gets left out. This is because of the zero-trust strategy for verifying users. 

    The biggest benefit of using Azure AD is that it allows us to access the information on-premise servers and also for devices that just joined Azure AD.

    What needs improvement?

    In future releases, I would like to see an attack simulator incorporated, especially for some of the business plans.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've been working with Azure AD for two years.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup was complex, but we overcame the complexity. 

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    The pricing is fine. It is what it is. 

    What other advice do I have?

    Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Public Cloud

    If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Microsoft Entra ID Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: October 2026
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Microsoft Entra ID Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.