Unlocking Zero Trust: How Microsoft Entra Suite redefines secure access and identity management

As organizations increasingly adopt hybrid and cloud-first strategies, managing secure access to resources has become more challenging. Ensuring that only authorized users and devices can access sensitive data, while maintaining flexibility for remote work and mobile users, requires a robust identity and access management (IAM) solution.

Microsoft Entra Suite offers a set of tools designed to address these challenges. With components like Entra Private Access, Entra Internet Access, Entra Identity Governance, and Entra Verified ID, Entra Suite helps organizations manage identities and secure access across a variety of environments. Importantly, it also aligns with Zero Trust principles, which advocate for continuous verification of trust, regardless of a user’s location or device.

In this post, we’ll take a closer look at how Microsoft Entra Suite supports modern identity and access management needs, especially in organizations with complex, hybrid infrastructures. We’ll explore its key components, how it integrates with other Microsoft security tools, and how it compares to other solutions on the market. Practical examples will also highlight how Entra Suite can help streamline access control, improve security, and simplify compliance.

What is Microsoft Entra Suite

Microsoft Entra Suite is a collection of identity and access management tools designed to provide secure, seamless access to resources in hybrid, multi-cloud environments. It brings together key services that address both modern security challenges and complex access requirements. The suite comprises five main components, each playing a crucial role in managing identities and protecting access:

Entra Private Access

Entra Private Access enables secure, conditional access to private applications without relying on traditional VPN solutions. By verifying both user identity and device compliance, it ensures that only authorized users can access specific applications, whether on-premises or in the cloud.

Entra Internet Access

Entra Internet Access provides secure access to internet and SaaS applications by inspecting and controlling traffic in real-time. It helps enforce organizational policies and ensures compliance with data protection regulations, offering an extra layer of security for web-based interactions.

Entra Identity Governance

This component ensures that the right people have the right access at the right time. It provides lifecycle management for identities, access reviews, and automated provisioning processes to streamline identity governance and maintain compliance.

Entra ID Protection

Provides advanced threat detection and automated risk remediation for identity-related attacks, such as compromised accounts and suspicious sign-in behavior. It enhances security by proactively identifying and mitigating risks in real time.

Entra Verified ID

Entra Verified ID enables the creation, issuance, and verification of decentralized identities. It empowers organizations to provide verifiable credentials, improving trust and reducing fraud in identity verification processes.

Together, these components offer a comprehensive framework for managing access, ensuring security, and supporting compliance in increasingly complex IT environments.

Entra Suite and Zero Trust: Verifying Trust at Every Stage

In today’s dynamic security landscape, the traditional concept of a network perimeter no longer applies. Users access resources from various locations, devices, and networks, making it essential to shift to a Zero Trust model. This model assumes that no user or device is inherently trustworthy and requires continuous verification before granting access to resources.

Microsoft Entra Suite plays a crucial role in implementing Zero Trust by ensuring that trust is verified at every stage of a user or device’s interaction. Here’s how each component contributes to this strategy:

Continuous Identity Verification with Entra Private Access

Entra Private Access applies Zero Trust principles by ensuring that every access request is verified in real time. It evaluates multiple factors such as user identity, device compliance, and location to determine access eligibility. Even if a user has previously authenticated, access is continuously reassessed, reducing the risk of lateral movement within the network.

Adaptive Risk-Based Controls with Entra Internet Access

By analyzing outbound traffic to SaaS and internet applications, Entra Internet Access enforces real-time controls based on user risk level. Integrated with Entra ID’s Identity Protection, it dynamically adjusts access policies based on detected risks, such as unusual sign-ins or compromised credentials, ensuring that access is granted only when conditions meet security standards.

Least Privilege Enforcement with Entra Identity Governance

Zero Trust emphasizes granting the minimum access necessary to perform a task. Entra Identity Governance automates access reviews, ensuring users only retain access to what they need and no more. Regular audits and automated processes help enforce least privilege principles, reducing exposure to insider threats or over-permissioned accounts.

Trustworthy Credentialing with Entra Verified ID

Entra Verified ID supports Zero Trust by offering decentralized, verifiable credentials that users can share securely. Instead of relying on traditional static credentials like usernames and passwords, this approach uses cryptographic proofs that can be validated without exposing sensitive user information, enhancing both security and privacy.

Aligning with Zero Trust Principles

Entra Suite’s integration with Entra ID’s Conditional Access policies ensures that every access decision is based on granular policies that continuously verify user identity, device health, and session context. This adaptive, real-time evaluation minimizes risk and maximizes security while providing a seamless user experience.

Together, these capabilities form a cohesive Zero Trust architecture that empowers organizations to protect resources, detect threats early, and respond to risks in real time—all without compromising usability.

Real-World Scenarios: Streamlining Access and Identity Management with Entra Suite

To understand the practical value of Microsoft Entra Suite, let’s explore real-world scenarios where it has helped organizations enhance security, streamline access control, and improve identity management.

Scenario 1: Replacing Legacy VPN with Entra Private Access for Secure Remote Access

A global enterprise with a dispersed workforce faced challenges with its traditional VPN solution. The VPN created performance bottlenecks and offered limited visibility into user behavior, making it difficult to enforce granular access controls.

Solution: The organization implemented Entra Private Access to replace its VPN. By leveraging Conditional Access policies from Entra ID, they provided secure, direct access to internal applications without routing traffic through a central VPN gateway. Access decisions were based on real-time assessments of user identity and device compliance.

Outcome:

• Reduced latency and improved user experience for remote employees.
• Enhanced security by limiting access to specific resources based on user roles and device health.
• Improved visibility into access patterns and potential risks.

Scenario 2: Automating Identity Lifecycle Management with Entra Identity Governance

A large healthcare provider needed to ensure compliance with stringent data privacy regulations such as HIPAA. Managing user access manually across various systems was time-consuming and prone to errors, often leading to over-permissioned accounts and unnecessary access.

Solution: Entra Identity Governance was deployed to automate user provisioning, deprovisioning, and access reviews. On their first day, new employees were automatically granted their “birth rights”—a set of baseline permissions providing the least privilege access necessary for their role. Periodic access reviews ensured that permissions beyond these birth rights were granted only when justified and revoked when no longer required.

Outcome:

• Reduced administrative overhead and improved efficiency in managing user access.
• Enhanced compliance with regulatory requirements through automated auditing and reporting.
• Minimized security risks by ensuring users retained only the access they needed at any given time.
• Strengthened the organization’s adherence to the Zero Trust principle of least privilege.

Scenario 3: Verifying Employee Credentials with Entra Verified ID

A financial services company needed a secure and efficient way to verify employee credentials without relying on traditional identity verification methods, which were prone to fraud and cumbersome to manage. Ensuring privacy was a top priority, particularly in an environment where employees accessed sensitive financial data.

Solution: The company adopted Entra Verified ID to issue verifiable credentials for employees and implemented a “face check” feature as part of the verification process. This feature allowed employees to use their mobile devices to authenticate by comparing their live facial scan with a stored template. Importantly, no face identification data ever left the mobile device, ensuring that user privacy remained fully protected.

Outcome:

• Reduced risk of identity fraud by leveraging cryptographically secure, verifiable credentials.
• Streamlined the onboarding and access process with fast, reliable identity verification.
• Enhanced user privacy by ensuring facial data was processed locally on the device, never transmitted or stored externally.
• Increased user confidence in the security of their personal information during authentication.

Pricing for Microsoft Entra Suite

Microsoft Entra Suite offers a unified approach to identity and network access management, aligning with Zero Trust principles to enhance security and user experience. Pricing starts at $12 per user, per month, with a requirement for Microsoft Entra ID P1 licensing as a baseline. The suite includes essential components like Entra ID (formerly Azure AD), Verified ID, and Entra Internet and Private Access, providing comprehensive tools for secure, least-privilege access and governance.

But, if you look at the value of each component paid for separately, by purchasing the suite, you get a bundle discount of 45%

For the most current and detailed pricing information, visit Microsoft’s official pricing page: Microsoft Entra Pricing

Conclusion

As organizations continue to navigate the complexities of hybrid work, multi-cloud environments, and evolving security threats, ensuring secure access to resources while maintaining user productivity is critical. Microsoft Entra Suite provides a comprehensive identity and access management solution that aligns with Zero Trust principles, enhancing security, streamlining access control, and supporting compliance.

By integrating powerful tools like Entra Private Access, Entra Internet Access, Entra Identity Governance, and Entra Verified ID, Entra Suite offers organizations the ability to continuously verify trust, enforce least privilege, and protect sensitive data. These capabilities, when combined with Entra ID Premium P1, deliver adaptive, real-time access decisions that address modern security challenges.

With practical applications such as replacing legacy VPNs, automating identity lifecycle management, and enabling secure, privacy-preserving identity verification, Entra Suite demonstrates its value in real-world scenarios. Its ability to enhance security without compromising usability makes it an essential part of any organization’s identity and access strategy.

For IT admins, security architects, and Microsoft administrators, adopting Entra Suite is more than a technical upgrade—it’s a step toward creating a more secure, flexible, and resilient organization in today’s fast-evolving digital landscape.