Azure Active Directory becomes Entra ID

The protection of identities and access is becoming increasingly important in view of the constantly growing digital influence. In the last twelve months, Microsoft has recorded a drastic increase to over 4,000 password attacks per second. This represents an almost threefold increase compared to the previous year and affects companies of all sizes and industries worldwide.

As cyber-attacks increase in frequency and sophistication in parallel with advancing digitalization, Microsoft has decided to improve secure access by introducing two new products for Microsoft customers: Microsoft Entra Internet Access and Microsoft Entra Private Access.

You may be wondering what these two products have to do with Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). Well, these two products have led to the renaming of Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) to Microsoft Entra ID. You can find out what and whether the renaming of Azure ID will change anything for you in this blog post.

- What is Azure AD - now Microsoft Entra ID?
- Why has Azure AD been renamed Microsoft Entra ID?
- What does this mean for you as an Azure AD user?
- Name change of the rosters
- Change of functions and features
- Decentralized identities and verifiable accounts

Previously known as Azure Active Directory or Azure AD and now called Microsoft Entra ID, the product is a cloud-based identity management tool. It was developed specifically for Microsoft applications such as Microsoft 365 and also supports interfaces to third-party products. It forms the fundamental basis for all services in Microsoft 365.

One of the outstanding features of Azure AD is the creation of single sign-on solutions. This involves matching local identities with access rights in the cloud.

The Microsoft Entra ID can be managed either via a web interface or via PowerShell.

In May 2022, Microsoft launched the Microsoft Entra product family, which initially consisted of three products:

• Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD)
• Microsoft Entra Permissions Management
• Microsoft Entra Verified ID.

The Microsoft Entra products were later expanded to include:

• Microsoft Entra ID Governance
• Microsoft Entra Workload ID

Today, Microsoft Entra products provide protection for every identity and secure access to all resources, whether local, in the cloud or anywhere in between.

To simplify product naming and promote consistency within the product family, Microsoft has decided to rename Azure AD to Microsoft Entra ID. The renaming process is already largely complete in the Admin Portal and the license plans will be renamed on 01 October 2023. The entire process will be fully completed by the end of 2023.

If you are already using Azure AD in your organization, you can continue to use the service without interruption. All existing implementations, settings and integrations remain functional. You don't have to do anything.

You can continue to use the Azure AD functions that you are familiar with. These are available via the Azure Portal, Microsoft 365 Admin Center and Microsoft Entra Admin Center. All functions and features are still included in the product.

There are also no changes with regard to licensing, contractual conditions, service level agreements, product certifications, support and prices.

From October 1, 2023, the display names of the service plans will be renamed. The new names are Microsoft Entra ID Free, Microsoft Entra ID P1 and Microsoft Entra ID P2. Despite the new names, all functions contained in the current Azure AD plans will remain unchanged.

Microsoft Entra ID, previously known as Azure AD, will continue to be part of the Microsoft 365 license plans.

The prices, conditions and agreements remain unchanged. Detailed information on prices can be found on the Microsoft website at the following link:

https://www.microsoft.com/security/business/microsoft-entra-pri

Apart from the name change, all features and functions remain unchanged. This means that you can access all functions without interruption. The only thing that changes is the naming of the functions within Microsoft Entra.

Example:

• Azure AD tenant > Microsoft Entra-Microsoft
• Azure AD account > Microsoft Entra account
• Integrated in Azure AD > Integrated in Microsoft Entra
• Conditional Azure AD access > Conditional Microsoft Entra access

This white paper addresses the challenges that individuals and organizations face when validating digital identities. It highlights how decentralized identity solutions based on standardized and interoperable approaches can help.