Microsoft has released Entra identity and access solutions to help organizations protect end-user identities across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, the cloud software giant said.
Entra includes the following products:
- Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD): Consists of Conditional Access, passwordless authentication and Azure AD External Identities.
- Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM): Offers Permissions Management, which provides visibility into permissions for identities, actions and resources across multi-cloud infrastructures. Permissions Management features permission management capabilities from CloudKnox Security, which Microsoft acquired in July 2021.
- Verified ID: Enables an organization to decide what, when and how information is shared. Verified ID will be generally available in August 2022.
- Identity Governance: Allows an organization to manage the identity lifecycle and monitor and track access as user attributes change. A public preview version of Identity Governance will be available in July 2022.
These products provide users with identity and access management (IAM), cloud infrastructure entitlement management and identity verification capabilities, Microsoft stated.
How Does Microsoft Entra Work?
Organizations can use Entra to verify all types of identities and secure, manage and govern their access to resources, Microsoft said. Entra allows organizations to secure every identity across every environment and protect access to every app and resources.
In addition, Entra helps organizations discover and right-size permissions, manage access lifecycles and ensure least privilege access for any identity, Microsoft noted. It also provides simple sign-in experiences, intelligent security and unified administration.
Entra represents "an important step towards delivering a comprehensive set of products for identity and access needs," Microsoft indicated. Going forward, Microsoft will continue to expand the Entra product family.
We'll be watching to see if Microsoft connects the dots between Entra and the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA), an ecosystem of MSSPs and independent software vendors (ISVs), continues to expand.
