Streamline Identity & Access Management with Microsoft's Entra Suite

Author: Nathan Berger, Director of Security Professional Services 

Facing complex and persistent identity and access management challenges? You're not alone. Lately, the Entra Suite from Microsoft is generating significant excitement among our clients and our Identity & Devices team. This innovative product suite offers a powerful answer to several long-running issues, enabling more integrated and effective client solutions.  

Here's what Microsoft's Entra Suite is solving: 

• One source of truth for authentication, everywhere. Every app – on-prem web, on-prem client-server, cloud SAML, OIDC, OAuth, unmanaged internet resources, all can be provisioned, certified, and automated from one portal. 

• Source of authority from the cloud! One of the biggest client requests is “how do I use Entra to sync down to on-premises, reversing my identity workflow so I can use my cloud capabilities?” This solution does effectively achieve management of all entities from the cloud, handling all the AD interactions with native bridges to interact with Active Directory. 

• Automated workflows! Entra Suite automated all the components between your HR system, the directory, the applications, and the resources your users need to be productive. Organizations leveraging SailPoint, Saviynt, One Identity, and other tools are quickly discovering that they no longer need a separate IGA product as the “bridge” to connect all of these, when Entra itself does this. 

• Major cost savings. Any tools under the umbrella of Identity & Access Management – core SSO platforms like Okta and Ping, IGA tools like SailPoint and those named above, SASE, SWG and VPN tools like Zscaler, Palo Alto, and Netskope, and risk-based protection controls – can be replaced by Entra Suite. 

Secret sauce for the best Entra Suite deployment 

There’s a right way to deploy the Entra Suite, and that deployment framework is what Cyclotron has refined over time to drive client success. 

Our framework results in the following outcome: 

• Maximizing value of your licenses quickly, especially for areas that help reduce human error and make your end-user experiences better. 

• Adhering to an order of operations that makes configuration streamlined & saves time. For example, access reviews shouldn’t be configured on apps until access packages are done first, and access packages can’t be effective without reducing direct assignments. We’ve done a lot of complex project management work ahead of time and learned the hard lessons, so you don’t have to suffer too. 

• Leaving nothing behind. The more you can automate & integrate into your entitlement management, the more value your solution creates. So, we tackle everything – AD apps, web apps, SaaS apps, resources, roles, certifications, privileged identities, SCIM provisioning, and more.  

• It’s easy to lose momentum in a tool deployment a few months in and say “No, we shouldn’t tackle those AD apps because it might negatively affect our business”. To prevent this, we use methods to audit impacts before cutover to ensure 1:1 configuration while making the user experience better.  

Ready to Deploy Entra Suite? Here's How Cyclotron Guides You 

Cyclotron will help guide you across the core Entra SSO platform and the 5 features in Entra Suite, taking on activities so you can see value quickly: 

Enable core Entra features for entitlement management	Cyclotron helps:  Rationalize and provide role mining services to transition existing access to a well-architected entitlement strategy that incorporates birthright access, access-by-request, and integrates with your JML workflows.   Ensure your SSO apps are integrated so they can be managed.  Provide robust Conditional Access frameworks integrated with best practices while customized to your environment needs.  Advise on core Entra features like guest management, device settings, and more to ensure a well-managed tenant.
Enable Identity Governance with lifecycle workflows, access reviews, SoD policies, and more.	For Entra IDG, Cyclotron helps:  Configure your entire JML workflows end-to-end, with special expertise in Logic Apps from trusted experts who work day-to-day in automation and can solve the most complex problems. These are the experts that will lift a huge burden of automation and testing from your teams while teaching them to support the solution.  Enable access reviews to prevent over-permission risks  Enforce Separation of Duties policies to demonstrate compliance & best-practice IAM security
Enable Entra Internet Access to govern cloud resources	For Entra Internet Access, Cyclotron helps:  Create a 1:1 map of your current SWG tool to Internet Access, porting configurations so you don’t have to do re-work  Deploy the agent with our Intune experts  Enforcing best-practices configurations for strong web security  Publish and integrate all your cloud resources including SaaS apps and unmanaged web resources  Integrate with Conditional Access for strong identity challenges in risky scenarios.
Enable Entra Private Access to govern your AD resources	For Entra Private Access, Cyclotron helps:  Create a 1:1 map of your current VPN tool to Private Access, porting configurations so you don’t have to do re-work  Handle the configuration work to install the proxy and relevant infrastructure  Enforce best-practices availability principles so your private apps are always accessible  Publish and integrate all your on-prem resources such as AD apps, Remote Desktop, critical infrastructure systems, and more.  Integrate with Conditional Access for strong identity challenges in risky scenarios.
Entra Verified ID	For Verified ID, we’ll give:  An overview of the solution  Recommendations and design for your app estate & helpdesk workflows  App development expertise to help your teams effectively integrate Verified ID into your custom code.
Entra Identity Protection	For ID Protection, we will:  Deploy risk policies to prevent & challenge risky access, as part of the Conditional Access Strategy  Tune the tool to reduce false positives and increase value  Integrate Security Operations strategy into the new identity features in the platform

How do I get started? 

To evaluate or deploy the Entra Suite, reach out to Nathan Berger (nathan.berger@cyclotron.com) for a starting discussion. We can provide Assessments, PoC’s, and full deployments. We also have special access to funding programs that may be able to offset your deployment cost.