Rebranding Microsoft Azure Active Directory to Microsoft Entra ID

Renaming Azure AD to Microsoft Entra ID:

Microsoft is renaming Azure Active Directory (AD) to Microsoft Entra ID to join all Microsoft Entra product family. Microsoft Entra products are:

• Microsoft Azure AD (Microsoft Entra ID)
• Microsoft Entra ID Protection
• Microsoft Entra ID Governance
• Microsoft Entra External ID
• Microsoft Entra Internet Access
• Microsoft Entra Private Access
• Microsoft Entra Permissions Management
• Microsoft Entra Verified ID
• Microsoft Entra Workload ID

Microsoft is bringing this new change to provide a simplified secure access experience to all. Microsoft Entra Internet Access & Microsoft Entra Private Access newly included in the Microsoft Entra Product family.

Azure AD to Entra ID: Only Name-Changing, No Actions Required

All existing configurations and integrations will continue to work the same and there is no change.

Even if your organization is planning to set up a new Azure (https://windowsmanagementexperts.com/microsoft-azure-services/) AD, all capabilities will be the same as before.

Licensing, Service level agreements, certifications, support, and pricing, all remain the same. Only the Service plan display name will change to Microsoft Entra ID Free, Microsoft Entra ID P1, and Microsoft Entra ID P2 respectively. The name change will be effective from October 1, 2023.

Look at this table:

The Rename will Not Impact the Developer or DevOps Experiences

PowerShell cmdlets, APIs, and existing URLs will remain the same for developers and they can access resources to build applications using their accounts. Naming is not changing for the following resources.

Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL)
Use it to acquire security tokens from the Microsoft identity platform to authenticate users and access secured web APIs to provide secure access to Microsoft Graph, other Microsoft APIs, third-party web APIs, or your own web API.

Microsoft Graph
Get programmatic access to organizations, users, and application data stored in Microsoft Entra ID.

Microsoft Graph PowerShell
Acts as an API wrapper for the Microsoft Graph APIs and helps administer every Microsoft Entra ID feature that has an API in Microsoft Graph.

Windows Server Active Directory
Commonly known as “Active Directory.” All the related Windows Server identity services are associated with Active Directory.

Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) nor Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) nor the product name “Active Directory” or any corresponding features.

Azure Active Directory B2C will continue to be available as an Azure service.

Any deprecated or retired functionality, feature, or service of Azure AD.

Please find the rename of below service plans and SKUs.

Features naming changes like below and the capabilities remains the same. Also, the customers who are using Azure AD Free as part of Microsoft 365, Intune, Dynamic 365, Teams subscriptions will have same capabilities with rename of Microsoft Entra ID Free.

• Azure AD tenant -> Microsoft Entra tenant
• Azure AD account -> Microsoft Entra account
• Azure AD joined -> Microsoft Entra joined
• Azure AD Conditional Access -> Microsoft Entra Conditional Access

What is the change in Microsoft 365 E5?

Microsoft 365 E5 customers now will get access to the token protection, Conditional access with existing capabilities and this also includes Microsoft Entra P2 which is Azure AD Premium P2.

How the customers notified about name changes?

The name changes will be notified to the customers via the message center, alerts, and display on the overview page of Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Learn, and Microsoft Entra admin center.

Change in the Product Logo

The product logo also changed since Azure AD is becoming Microsoft Entra ID and the customers need to work with their Microsoft partner organization to get the new logo.

The Products Whose Names Have Not Changed

The following products are not changed with names and replaced by another name.

• Azure AD Authentication Library (ADAL), replaced by Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL)
• Azure AD Graph, replaced by Microsoft Graph
• Azure Active Directory PowerShell for Graph (Azure AD PowerShell), replaced by Microsoft Graph PowerShell.

Microsoft Entra product family is segregated into below categories and the products are aligned with respective categories.

Identity access management:

• Microsoft Entra ID (Azure Active Directory)
• Microsoft Entra ID Governance
• Microsoft Entra External ID

New identity categories:

• Microsoft Entra Verified ID
• Microsoft Entra Permissions Management
• Microsoft Entra Workload ID

Network access:

• Microsoft Entra Internet Access
• Microsoft Entra Private Access

Flexible work arrangements in the organizations and resulting workload increase in the cloud and we want to ensure secure access to any app or resource from anywhere. So, Microsoft comes up with the following two products: Microsoft Entra Internet Access and Microsoft Entra Private Access.

Microsoft Entra Internet Access:

It is a secure web gateway that protects malicious internet traffic and threats from the internet. It enables the best class secure access to Microsoft 365 applications.

Microsoft Entra Private Access:

It is secure access to private applications and resources. The users can access to provide apps hosted in hybrid, multi-cloud, and data centers from any device, anywhere. You can configure conditional access, multi-factor authentication, and device compliance to individual applications.

Both Internet access and Private access are combined with Microsoft Defender for Cloud applications.

Microsoft Entra ID Governance

Entra ID Governance is generally available and complete identity governance that ensures the right people have the right access to the right resource at the right time. ID Governance can be added to Azure AD Premium P1, and P2 licenses and it provides a dashboard of a comprehensive and actionable overview of the identity governance in the organizations.

Customers are already started using these new products worldwide to bring the vision for unified secure access with Microsoft Entra.

Wrapping it Up:

Microsoft Entra ID is sure to improve with the name change. You can seamlessly enhance the security and productivity of your organization with our Entra ID Professional services.

At WME, our expert team will ensure a smooth transition, providing comprehensive support and guidance throughout the process. We’ll help you elevate your organization to new heights of efficiency and protection with Microsoft Entra ID.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity – contact us today and embark on your journey to a more secure and productive future!

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