{"id":90992,"date":"2020-04-30T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T16:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/\/?p=90992"},"modified":"2023-11-15T11:18:24","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T19:18:24","slug":"zero-trust-deployment-guide-azure-active-directory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2020\/04\/30\/zero-trust-deployment-guide-azure-active-directory\/","title":{"rendered":"Zero Trust Deployment Guide for Microsoft Azure Active Directory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microsoft is providing a series of deployment guides for customers who have engaged in a Zero Trust security strategy<\/a>. In this guide, we cover how to deploy and configure Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) capabilities to support your Zero Trust<\/a> security strategy.<\/p>\n

For simplicity, this document will focus on ideal deployments and configuration. We will call out the integrations that need Microsoft products other than Azure AD and we will note the licensing needed within Azure AD (Premium P1 vs P2), but we will not describe multiple solutions (one with a lower license and one with a higher license).<\/p>\n

Azure AD at the heart of your Zero Trust strategy<\/h3>\n

Azure AD provides critical functionality for your Zero Trust strategy. It enables strong authentication, a point of integration for device security, and the core of your user-centric policies to guarantee least-privileged access. Azure AD\u2019s Conditional Access capabilities are the policy decision point for access to resources based on user identity, environment, device health, and risk\u2014verified explicitly at the point of access. In the following sections, we will showcase how you can implement your Zero Trust strategy with Azure AD.<\/p>\n

Establish your identity foundation with Azure AD<\/h3>\n

A Zero Trust<\/a> strategy requires that we verify explicitly, use least privileged access principles, and assume breach. Azure Active Directory can act as the policy decision point to enforce your access policies based on insights on the user, device, target resource, and environment. To do this, we need to put Azure Active Directory in the path of every access request\u2014connecting every user and every app or resource through this identity control plane. In addition to productivity gains and improved user experiences from single sign-on (SSO) and consistent policy guardrails, connecting all users and apps provides Azure AD with the signal to make the best possible decisions about the authentication\/authorization risk.<\/p>\n