Azure Active Directory renamed to Entra ID

Microsoft has changed a product name yet again, as Microsoft are known to do. Azure Active Directory is now Entra ID; let’s have a look at what that means.

When you sign into a computer and put in your credentials, pin or password, there are several different methods the computer uses to determine whether it recognises you as being allowed to log into Windows.

As we’ve discussed in a previous article, there are three types of account: Local, Personal, and Work or School. This name change affects one method used for Work or School accounts and thus is applicable to businesses.

The name will change on its own and will not affect users in any way or require any action from users.  It reflects a change in how Microsoft defines its product families, rather than a change to the products themselves.

Why have Microsoft done this if it makes no difference to users? Probably because previously, the names of two different methods of logging in were too similar. Azure Active Directory (Now Entra ID) is purely cloud-based credential management whereas Active Directory is the more traditional on-premises method of identifying users and computers belonging to a domain and hence a business.

Using the cloud-based Entra ID makes it easier for an organisation to manage a distributed network and the use of bring-your-own-device and other work-from-anywhere technologies.

For more information about why Microsoft is changing the name, in their own words, check this article here

For more information about the difference between (Azure Active Directory) Entra ID and Active Directory, check this article here