Microsoft Entra ID
Heya,
Microsoft Entra ID, which was formerly Azure Active Directory or Azure AD, is a common CIAM solution. It is multi-tenant, supports OIDC and SAML, and, in my experience, has a lot of market share, especially in the enterprise context. Microsoft was recognized by Gartner as a leader in the access management space, which is "tools that include authentication and single sign-on (SSO) capabilities, and that establish, manage and enforce runtime access controls for modern standards-based and classic web applications and APIs". Because I am not a Gartner client I'm linking to Okta's press release, but you can see Microsoft in the Leader quadrant.
Microsoft Entra ID External, a subproject of Microsoft Entra, is the successor to Azure AD B2C, which was previously the main customer identity and access management (CIAM) product from Microsoft. From the FAQ, Microsoft makes it clear that Azure AD B2C is supported until 2030 and that migration plans will be shared; contact your account rep for more info.
If you want to learn more about the Entra ID product, you're in luck! Merill Fernando, one of the Principal Product Managers, maintains Entra.news, an Entra focused newsletter. There he highlights new features and interviews. As the name implies, it does cover all of Entra, a solution which could be called either sprawling or expansive, and which includes workforce login as well as CIAM. There will always be something to learn, for sure.
Merill and other Entra team members were also featured in this video about Secure Multitenant Solutions: Identity and Access Management for ISVs. I link to the start of the interesting content.
While the speakers obviously focused on Entra as a solution, there were plenty of tidbits useful for anyone building solutions that integrate with CIAM software. Key points include:
When you use a CIAM solution, the authentication method (password, MFA, passwordless) is determined by administrators, not coded into the application.
Multi-tenant solutions have some unique challenges in both authentication and authorization.
Discussion of the benefits of using libraries to integrate with CIAM solutions, including Microsoft’s authentication libraries.
Application registration and trust are critical; why that matters.
Single-tenant internal apps differ from multi-tenant applications.
You can watch the whole video here.
Cheers,
Dan