The Microsoft Entra family

- [Instructor] Microsoft Entra is a family of identity and access management solutions designed to help organizations manage identities, permissions, and policies for their cloud-centric environments. The word Entra is derived from the Latin word intrare, meaning to enter, and that makes sense because verifying one's identity is the first step in entering or gaining access to a digital environment. This family consists of the following members, Microsoft Entra ID, the heavy weight of the Entra family, also formally known as Azure Active Directory. I know what you're wondering. Why does Microsoft keep renaming their products? It almost feels as if there's a dedicated person whose sole job is to change names. But hear me out. There are two excellent reasons why this rebranding was necessary. Firstly, there was this constant confusion between Windows Server Active Directory and Azure Active Directory due to the similarity in names. Secondly, the word Azure downplayed the product's capability. Azure AD could not only work within Azure, but it also integrated with the on-premises environments and multi-cloud environments. Its reach went beyond Azure, and hence, the new name, Microsoft Entra ID. We will be discussing this product in greater detail throughout the rest of this course, but let me briefly describe what other members of the Entra family do. Entra ID Protection helps us identify anomalies and respond to unusual sign-in attempts and risky user behavior. Entra External ID allows us to securely collaborate with external partners by granting them access to internal resources using their own credentials. Entra ID Governance provides us with the tools to ensure access to resources is in compliance with the organizational policies. Entra Domain Services provides us with a platform to run legacy applications in the cloud that use older authentication protocols, like Kerberos and NTLM. Entra Verified ID allows us to automate the verification and validation of user identities across organizations and third-party entities. Entra Permissions Management provides us with a comprehensive visibility and control over permissions for resources in multi-cloud environments. Entra Workload ID helps us configure managed identities for apps and services. Entra Internet Access allows us to streamline access to Microsoft 365, SaaS apps, and other internet resources by redirecting user requests through a gateway running in Azure. Entra Private Access works similar to Entra Internet Access, except that it streamlines access to the on-premises environment, private apps, and multi-cloud resources through the same gateway in Azure. It is perfectly okay if these short descriptions don't give you a clear picture of the functionality of each member. For now, just remembering the names should suffice. As you progress through my Entra courses, you will get a deeper insight into the role of each member. That being said, let's refocus on our core mission, which is to learn Microsoft Entra ID.