The successor to AWS Single Sign On, AWS IAM Identity Center is used to centrally manage workforce access to multiple AWS accounts and applications. It helps users to securely create or connect workforce identities and manage their access centrally across AWS accounts and applications. AWS states that IAM Identity Center is the recommended approach for workforce authentication and authorization on AWS for organizations of any size and type.
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Microsoft Entra ID
Score 8.9 out of 10
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Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Microsoft Azure Active Directory or Azure AD) is a cloud-based identity and access management (IAM) solution supporting restricted access to applications with Azure Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) built-in, single sign-on (SSO), B2B collaboration controls, self-service password, and integration with Microsoft productivity and cloud storage (Office 365, OneDrive, etc) as well as 3rd party services.
IAM plays a pivotal role in our organization, addressing the unique needs of our diverse workforce, which includes full-time employees, part-timers, contractors, and client engineers who access our workloads. This multifaceted solution offers us unparalleled control over access, ensuring that each individual has precisely the permissions they need and nothing more. IAM's robust security features guarantee the protection of our valuable resources and sensitive data. As our organization expands, IAM effortlessly scales with us, adapting to changing requirements, and helping us maintain our commitment to top-tier security and efficient access management.
It is especially good for organizations that are otherwise in the Microsoft ecosystem (Microsoft 365 applications). Microsoft Entra ID is really well supported sign-in method in various SaaS-applications and they often have step-by-step guides how to deploy the SSO with Microsoft Entra ID. It's less suitable for organizations that might use other productivity tools than M365 or do not have Windows-based computers.
Single Sign-on helps ease the user experience, allowing users to avoid typing multiple passwords.
The identity and management are straightforward to use and easy to connect to other applications, as well as third-party applications.
The support of remote work. Nowadays, many people work from home and need to access their accounts. Microsoft Enterprise ID gives secure access to the company data.
Make it easier for users to assume roles securely, especially in cross-account settings. This might involve simplifying the process of switching roles in the management console or creating a command for AWS CLI that supports smoother role assumption.
Policy testing tools will be invaluable for administrators when they are creating policies. If this tool is able to assess the impact of enforcing a policy it will help greatly in preventing policy misconfigurations that lead to unintended consequences.
Better user interface, AWS should simplify the IAM interface to encourage new users.
Probably the most primary thing is just the interface itself. It's frequently changing and so oftentimes we kind of have to go back and redocument our processes for our IT staff because the steps that they would take to perform a task one month. Now it's a totally different staff, new dashboard, even a new name for the product or the feature. So it would be nice if that stuff was a little bit more consistent.
MSFT Entra ID has been essential for managing our geographically dispersed team. We're confident that it will scale with us as grow, and we'll be able to take advantage of additional security and ID management features as they become necessary. Being able to centrally manage our user access from anywhere with a small support team is such a relief.
It gets easier with time, initially, it can be overwhelming for a fresher. Once you're used to working with roles and policies and know when and where it is required eventually it becomes easy
I mean it's pretty good. It is click, click. I mean, oftentimes I can go to the expert or layer two support to get help. Suddenly I go to them. So it has to be pretty useful to be honest. I do a lot of, and there's a lot of, you could do research quickly online to find out how to do certain things. I think that's the only thing we can improve to in terms of kind of a best practice path is setting up it. But because I'm it profess of tons of years in co-management services, I can figure it out. But for others they may not be able to figure it out. You still need an IT person of course to translate all of that. But to me pretty straightforward. I come from the days of directory from 2008, 2000, Microsoft server 2000.
I have not needed to engage support for anything at this time. I have been able to find the answers either online or in a knowledgebase. I tried to skip the question but it would not let me, so I rated a 9 based on other interactions with Microsoft support I have had
Make sure you use a good partner. Our implementation was a bit longer and more problematic than we expected. Our partner got it done, but, in my opinion, some of their inexperience and staffing issues were evident.
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) excels over Google Cloud IAM with its granular control, extensive service integration, and robust security features. AWS IAM provides fine-tuned access policies, versatile role delegation, and a wide array of services. Its adaptability and extensive toolset make it the preferred choice for businesses of all sizes.
We've used other Microsoft products and we've also used some standalone products, like each application you can have its own identity, so we've looked at some of those too, but we try to use the Entra ID as much as possible because it offers a wider range of reliability.
Microsoft Professional Services' technical knowledge is appreciable as consultants design the solution as per customer requirements. Mapping of features per user specifications and assisting Customer IT engineers to implement so they can manage and administer the services.
AWS IAM Identity Center has significantly bolstered our security posture by ensuring that only authorized personnel access our resources. This enhanced security has protected us from potential data breaches or unauthorized use of resources, mitigating risks and potential costs associated with security incidents.
While IAM brings long-term cost savings, there might be initial implementation and training costs. It's important to factor these costs into the ROI equation.
If your organization isn't used to such fine-grained access control, there might be resistance to adopting IAM. Overcoming this resistance might require additional training costs.
I think it's had positive. It's enabled us to make authentication easier and more streamlined across the organization from frontline workers to back office workers.
It's allowed us to really adopt authentication policies and methods that suit that user and their work environment.
