Entra ID Governance – How it can help you manage identity and access at scale

Microsoft Entra ID Governance is a re-branded cloud-based service in the Microsoft Azure ecosystem that aids businesses in the management and protection of the identity and access lifecycle of employees, suppliers, and business partners. It automates access request workflows, assignments, reviews, and expiration, and integrates with Microsoft and non-Microsoft apps. It also helps to reduce risk, meet compliance requirements and improve productivity and overall identity related security.

In this post, I’ll explain some of the new features and capabilities of Entra ID Governance, what they offer and how you can use them to streamline your business’s identity governance framework.

Entitlement management

Entitlement management is an identity governance feature that enables businesses to manage identity and access lifecycle at scale, by automating access request workflows, access assignments, reviews and expiration. It can be used to:

• Define access packages that bundle together resources, such as apps, groups, and SharePoint sites, that users need to perform a specific role or task.
• Delegate access decisions to business groups, such as managers, project owners, or sponsors, who can approve or deny access requests, or assign access directly to users or groups.
• Enable self-service access requests for users, who can browse and request access to available access packages, either for themselves or on behalf of others.
• Set up recurring access reviews for access packages, to ensure that users still need the access they have and remove access that is no longer needed or appropriate.
• Configure expiration policies for access packages, to automatically revoke access after a defined period of time, or based on events, such as when a user leaves the organisation or changes roles.

Entitlement management supports both cloud and on-premises resources, and integrates with Microsoft apps, such as Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, and SharePoint, as well as hundreds of non-Microsoft apps, such as Salesforce, Workday, and SAP.

Lifecycle workflows

Lifecycle workflows are another identity governance feature that enables automation of identity lifecycle tasks, such as creating, updating, or deleting user identities, based on signals from your HR or HCM systems. Lifecycle workflows can be used to:

• Provision user identities in Microsoft Entra ID and Active Directory, based on data from your HR or HCM sources, such as Workday or SuccessFactors. It can also sync attributes, such as name, email, or department, from HR/HCM sources to Microsoft Entra ID and Active Directory.
• Assign user access to resources, based on user attributes, group memberships, or roles. You can also enforce separation of duties, to prevent conflicting or risky access, such as app administrators and app users.
• Trigger workflow tasks at certain key events, such as before a new employee is scheduled to start work, as they change status or roles during their time in the organisation, or as they leave the organisation. You can also customise the workflow tasks, such as sending notifications, requesting approvals or running scripts.

Lifecycle workflows help you ensure that user identities and access are always up to date and aligned with your business processes and policies.

Privileged identity management

Privileged identity management is an identity governance feature that enables you to secure privileged access for administration, by providing just-in-time and just-enough access to sensitive resources. You can use privileged identity management to:

• Manage privileged roles, such as global administrator, security administrator, or Exchange administrator, in Microsoft Entra ID, Azure, and other Microsoft online services. You can also manage privileged access to Azure resources, such as virtual machines, storage accounts or SQL databases.
• Require users to request activation for privileged roles, and approve or deny requests based on conditions, such as time, location, or device. You can also set up multi-factor authentication, justification or ticketing system integration for activation requests.
• Enforce time-bound and scope-limited access for privileged roles, and automatically deactivate access after a certain period of time, or based on certain events, such as when a user logs out or closes the browser.
• Review and audit privileged access, and monitor the activities and alerts of privileged users. You can also set up recurring access reviews for privileged roles, to ensure that users still need the access they have and remove access that is no longer needed or appropriate.

Privileged identity management helps you reduce the attack surface and the risk of identity compromise, by minimising the number of users who have permanent and unlimited access to sensitive resources.

Lets sum it all up

Identity and governance are essential to ensuring that business users have the right level of access to the right resources at the right time, and that access is secure, compliant, and productive. Microsoft is leading the charge with identity management and governance with their Entra ID Governance offering, a cloud-based product that automates, delegates, and monitors identity and access lifecycle processes and integrates with Microsoft and non-Microsoft apps.

Entra ID Governance provides three key features: entitlement management, lifecycle workflows, and privileged identity management, that enable organisations to manage and protect the identity and access of their employees, suppliers, and partners at scale. Entra ID Governance is becoming a notable competitor to other IDM solutions by offering a comprehensive, flexible, user and administrator friendly solution that leverages the power of Microsoft Entra ID, Azure, and other Microsoft online services. Entra ID Governance helps businesses to improve productivity, strengthen security and more easily meet compliance and regulatory requirements.