Microsoft Entra ID Services for Calgary Businesses

Microsoft Entra ID is the new name for Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). Microsoft rebranded the product in 2023 as part of the broader Entra family of identity and network access products. Functionally, Entra ID is the same cloud identity and access management platform — it controls who can sign in to your Microsoft 365 apps, Azure resources, and any third-party SaaS applications connected to your tenant.

Most small and mid-sized businesses need at least Entra ID P1, which is included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium and enables Conditional Access, SSPR, and group-based access management. Entra ID P2 adds Identity Protection (risk-based sign-in policies) and Privileged Identity Management (just-in-time admin access) — features recommended for businesses handling sensitive data or subject to compliance requirements like SOC 2 or PIPEDA. AltaCom will assess your environment and recommend the right licence tier.

Conditional Access is a policy engine built into Entra ID that evaluates every sign-in attempt against a set of conditions — who the user is, what device they're on, where they're signing in from, and how risky the session appears — before granting or blocking access. Without Conditional Access, a stolen password is all an attacker needs to access your data. With it, you can require MFA, block sign-ins from outside Canada, restrict access to managed devices only, and automatically block high-risk sessions flagged by Microsoft's threat intelligence.

A baseline Entra ID hardening engagement — enforcing MFA, blocking legacy authentication, configuring SSPR, and deploying foundational Conditional Access policies — typically takes 1 to 2 weeks for a 10–100 user environment. More complex deployments involving SSO integrations with third-party apps, PIM configuration, and Global Secure Access rollout can take 4 to 8 weeks. AltaCom phases rollouts to avoid disrupting your team during the transition.

Yes. Entra ID supports SSO for thousands of pre-integrated SaaS applications — including Salesforce, Zoom, Slack, Dropbox, DocuSign, ServiceNow, and many others — via the Microsoft Entra app gallery. For custom or line-of-business applications, AltaCom can configure SAML 2.0 or OpenID Connect integrations so your users sign in once and access everything without re-entering passwords.

Global Secure Access is Microsoft's cloud-native Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution, part of the Entra product family. It includes Microsoft Entra Internet Access (securing outbound internet traffic with identity-aware filtering) and Microsoft Entra Private Access (replacing traditional VPNs for access to internal applications). For most businesses still running a legacy VPN, Global Secure Access provides a more secure, scalable, and manageable alternative that enforces Conditional Access on every connection — not just the perimeter.

MFA is the single most impactful control you can apply — it blocks over 99% of credential-based attacks. But MFA alone is not sufficient. Sophisticated attackers use adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) phishing to steal session tokens after MFA completes, bypassing the protection entirely. A complete Entra ID security posture layers MFA with Conditional Access (device compliance, sign-in risk policies), Identity Protection (anomaly detection), and token protection — which AltaCom configures as part of every Entra engagement.

If your organization uses Microsoft 365, Entra ID is already your identity provider for cloud apps — whether you realize it or not. If you also run on-premises Active Directory (AD DS), AltaCom can configure Microsoft Entra Connect to synchronize your on-prem identities to Entra ID, giving users a single account for both cloud and on-premises resources. For organizations looking to move fully to the cloud, we can also plan a phased migration away from on-premises AD entirely.