Hybrid Identity Management with Azure Active Directory

With all the things organizations need to manage identity for – on-premises environments, mobile devices, laptops and other managed devices, plus our internal active directory systems – it’s becoming increasingly harder to manage. We are in a new world of mobile first, cloud first reality.

Here are a few stats to think about:  

• 63% of confirmed data breaches involve weak, default or stolen passwords
• More than 80% of employees admit to using non-approved SaaS applications in their jobs
• As we are trying to manage all this, IT budgets are barely growing – we’re seeing less than 1% growth year over year

In reality, those Software as a Service (SaaS) apps integrate nicely and enable users to be more efficient, but we must be able to manage all those identities. When a user comes into your environment, using all kinds of web applications with user accounts for each, and possibly access to a corporate credit card, then that person leaves the company or gets let go, it’s difficult to track all those if they are individually managed.

With Azure Active Directory, you can manage 1000s of apps with one identity, enable business without borders, as well as manage access to scale, plus you’re offering cloud-powered protection. With Azure AD at the core of your business, you are enabling identity as a control plane.

So, how does this look?

• With Azure AD on your current on premises environment, you’ll want to link up with all those cloud applications (Azure, SaaS, Office 365, any public cloud).
• In between, you’ve got Azure Active Directory, where you can easily sync that back with your on premises and then tie that into all those SaaS applications.
• This allows you to offer self-service, single sign on to your users for all of those apps, plus any internal on premises areas you use with user names and passwords.
• Everything will be synchronized across the landscapes and you can extend that out to your customers and partners as well.
• This is a powerful way to enable your workforce, as well as sync with your customers and partners when you want them to have access to certain areas.

Simply put: 1000s of apps with one identity, using single sign on to any app using Microsoft Azure Active Directory. And to take it one step further, if you want to move any of your VMs up into Azure or any of your services up into a PaaS solution, you already have that integration and using your Azure AD domain services, you can set up your lift and shift that much easier.

If you’d like to learn more about Azure Identity Management or anything Azure related, you’re in the right place. Click the link below or contact us—we’re here to help.