Howdy folks,
We have heard from you, our customers, that you'd like us to provide more guidance and recommendations to help you successfully deploy Azure Active Directory (AD). So today, I'm excited to share a new set of step-by-step deployment plans based on the best practices we've learned from working with thousands of customers to successfully roll-out Azure AD.
Deployment plans guide you through the business value, planning considerations, implementation steps, and management of Azure AD solutions. They bring together everything you need to deploy Azure AD capabilities to get the maximum value. Deployment plans include Microsoft recommended best practices, user communications, planning guides, implementation steps, test cases, and more!
The following deployment plans are available starting today:
- Enable users to single sign-on (SSO) to their SaaS applications.
- Migrate authentication to the cloud.
- Manage help desk costs with Self Service Password Reset (SSPR).
- Enable authentication to on-premises applications in the cloud via Application Proxy.
- Automate the management of user accounts in SaaS applications with Outbound User Provisioning.
- Manage risk through Conditional Access and Multi-Factor Authentication.
- Provide end users access to all their apps via the Access Panel.
Our customers are already starting to have success with these deployment plans. Here’s what one customer had to say:
“As part of our ongoing digital transformation, we moved our Office 365 authentication from federated authentication (AD FS) to cloud authentication. The migration required some design work, but through our relationship with Microsoft and the use of their authentication deployment plan, we were able to migrate seamlessly with minimal disruption to our users. Since we have moved to cloud authentication the volume of support tickets and service downtime has decreased significantly and we are better positioned for our journey to the cloud.”
—Eric Grabowski, senior security architect, Liberty Mutual
Getting Started
To get started, check out our video demonstrating our SSO deployment plan to get a taste of how to use this in your organization.
Once you're ready to get started, you can access all current and future deployment plans at
Aka.ms/DeploymentPlans. From there, you can download the deployment plan specific to what you're trying to accomplish and customize it to meet your organization’s needs.
We will update the deployment plans based on your feedback and as our platform evolves. Please send us feedback and suggestions.You can also send us your questions at DeploymentPlan@microsoft.com.
We always love hearing from you!
Best Regards,
Alex Simons (Twitter: @alex_a_simons)
Corporate VP of Program Management
Microsoft Identity Division