Confidently modernize to cloud authentication with Azure AD staged rollout, now generally available

Howdy folks,

I’m excited to announce that staged rollout to cloud authentication is now generally available! This feature allows you to selectively test groups of users with cloud authentication methods, such as pass-through authentication (PTA) or password hash sync (PHS), while all other users in the federated domains continue to use federation services, such as AD FS, Ping Federate, Okta, or any other federation services to authenticate users.

Moving your Azure AD authentication from federation services to the cloud allows you to manage user and device sign-in from a single control plane in Azure AD. Some of the benefits using cloud authentication include reducing the dependency on on-premises infrastructure, which typically includes a farm of servers and proxies that need to be accessible from the internet. In addition, you can take advantage of security capabilities like: Azure AD multifactor authentication (MFA), Conditional Access, Identity Protection for leaked credentials, Identity Governance, and more.

New with the general availability, we’ve added the ability to monitor the users and groups added or removed from staged rollout and users sign-ins while in staged rollout, using the new Hybrid Auth workbooks in the Azure portal.  In addition, we’ve built a staged rollout interactive guide to help you learn more and deploy this feature.

Hybrid Auth workbook

As always, we’d love to hear your feedback or suggestions in the comments or on Twitter (@AzureAD).

Alex Simons (@Alex_A_Simons)

Corporate VP of Program Management

Microsoft Identity Division

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