Microsoft bundles identity and access solutions under Entra brand

Microsoft announced its new Microsoft Entra family of products encompassing a range of identity and access solutions, ZDNet reports. Microsoft Entra's offerings include Azure Active Directory, which handles passwordless authentication and conditional access, among others, and Azure AD External Identities, which manages business-to-business and business-to-consumer connections. Also part of the suite is Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management, which is a rebranding of the CloudKnox permission solution, and Decentralized Identity, which was introduced recently through a public preview under Azure AD Verifiable Credentials. The company says Entra will provide identity and access management, identity verification and cloud-infrastructure management, and will be deployable on-premises as well as on Azure, Google Cloud, AWS and various Microsoft and third-party devices and applications. Microsoft Corporate Vice President of PM, Identity and Network Access Alex Simons, says Entra gives enterprises the ability to securely connect to partners and distribution channels in a multi-cloud environment using identity to verify not just individuals but devices and Internet-of-Things.