Microsoft announced the next milestone in their expanded vision for unified, secure access. Part of this includes renaming Azure Active Directory to Microsoft Entra ID to unify naming within the Entra product family.
What is it?
Microsoft Entra is the identity and access product family Microsoft introduced in May 2022 to support our expanded vision for secure access. The product family has grown from three at launch (Azure AD, Permissions Management, and Verified ID) to now eight, including ID Governance, Workload ID, and External ID.
Microsoft Entra protects any identity and secures access to any resource—on-premises, across clouds, and anywhere in between—with a product family that unifies multi-cloud identity and network access solutions. It offers comprehensive tools for managing identities, enforcing access policies, and detecting potential threats, ensuring that organizations can maintain a robust security posture.
By leveraging advanced AI and machine learning capabilities, the tool continually adapts to evolving security challenges. This product family is designed to support organizations of all sizes in their journey toward zero-trust security.
Why is the Renaming Important?
With the expansion into the Security Service Edge (SSE) category and the launch of two new products—Microsoft Entra Internet Access and Private Access—Microsoft is unifying their identity and network access portfolio under the Entra brand. This change will simplify secure access experiences for Microsoft customers.
No action is needed from customers
This rename won’t change Azure AD capabilities, APIs, PowerShell cmdlets, sign-in URLs, service level agreement, Microsoft authentication libraries, developer experiences, or tooling. Deployments, configurations, and integrations will continue to work without interruption.
No change to pricing and licensing
All existing pricing and licensing plans remain the same and can be easily mapped between Azure AD and Microsoft Entra ID plans. Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 plans will continue to include Microsoft Entra ID (currently Azure AD). The new display names for licensing plans (SKUs)—Microsoft Entra ID Free, Microsoft Entra ID P1, and Microsoft Entra ID P2—will be rolled out on October 1, 2023.
Change management
Over the coming weeks, you will see notifications in the Microsoft Entra, Azure, and Microsoft 365 admin portals, in documentation, and in other places where you interact with Azure AD. Microsoft will complete the name change across all interfaces by the end of 2023.
Figure 1. With the name change, the standalone license names are changing. Azure AD Free becomes Microsoft Entra ID Free. Azure AD Premium P1 becomes Microsoft Entra ID P1. Azure AD Premium P2 becomes Microsoft Entra ID P2. And our product for customer identities, Azure AD External Identities, becomes Microsoft Entra External ID. SKU and service plan name changes take effect on October 1, 2023.
A Simple Approach
Our Entra ID solutions provide you with the tools and capabilities needed to manage user identities, enforce access controls, and protect against potential security vulnerabilities.
Enhanced Security: Strengthen your organization’s security posture by enforcing strong authentication and access controls to protect against unauthorized access and cyber threats.
Improved Compliance: By implementing robust IAM solutions, you can ensure compliance with regulatory requirements such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS by securely managing user identities and access permissions.
Streamlined Operations: Our IAM solutions streamline user authentication, provisioning, and access management processes, reducing administrative overhead and improving operational efficiency.
Reduced Risk: Mitigate the risk of data breaches, insider threats, and unauthorized access by implementing proactive security measures and enforcing access controls.
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