Today Microsoft announced significant milestones for identity and network access, including the news that Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is becoming Microsoft Entra ID.
In order to enhance user-friendly and secure access experiences for our customers, the renaming of Azure AD to Microsoft Entra ID aims to streamline the usage and navigation of their unified and expanded Microsoft Entra portfolio, as part of our continuous commitment to simplification.
It’s been a year since Microsoft introduced Microsoft Entra as a new product family for all their identity and access products, bringing to life their expanded vision for secure access. At the time, the Microsoft Entra product family included Azure AD plus two new products—Microsoft Entra Permissions Management, a cloud infrastructure entitlement management product, and Microsoft Entra Verified ID, a decentralized identity solution.
Since then, Microsoft added several new products into the Microsoft Entra family—Microsoft Entra ID Governance, Microsoft Entra Workload ID, and the new products they introduced today, Microsoft Entra Internet Access and Microsoft Entra Private Access. All to advance to deliver a complete repertoire of solutions that provide secure access for any identity to any resource.
While adopting new Microsoft Entra products, customers have consistently relied on Microsoft's flagship cloud identity solution, Azure AD, which safeguards over 720,000 organizations globally. Microsoft has observed that the majority of customers effectively implement their new products in conjunction with Azure AD, thereby realizing their vision of unified and secure access through Microsoft Entra.
By consolidating all identity and access capabilities under the Microsoft Entra brand, Microsoft aims to simplify the navigation and usage of their expanded product portfolio. This ensures that our customers can benefit from robust security measures across all access points. Additionally, Microsoft is adopting a standardized terminology for all identity products, incorporating the use of "ID" across the board. This includes Microsoft Entra ID, ID Protection, ID Governance, External ID, Workload ID, and Verified ID. The accompanying visual represents the envisioned future state of the Microsoft Entra portfolio once the new name rollout is completed.
All licensing plans and pricing for Azure AD and Microsoft 365 plans that include Azure AD remain the same, with only the display names for the licensing plans changing. The summary below provides easy mapping from the current Azure AD SKU names to the new SKU names under Microsoft Entra ID. Service plan display names will change on October 1, 2023.
Feel free to reach out to us if you have any inquiries.
#Microsoft #EntraID #IdentityServices #ProtectOurIdentity
