Preface

Mastering Identity and Access Management with Microsoft Azure is a crisp and practical, hands-on guide containing project scenarios/illustrations that is tailored to genuine hybrid and cloud-only challenges. Developers, security specialists, IT consultants, and architects are the audience for this book. With it, you get a complete companion for solving key topics in the field of identity and access management through all related Microsoft technologies and practice-related crisp and clear content that helps you to put the theory into practice. The book delves into the Microsoft 365 Security and Compliance plans and other Azure services related to identity and access management topics.

The book is divided into three parts. In the first part, crucial identity management topics are covered, such as identity synchronization as a whole, including monitoring and protection topics, in a cloud-only and hybrid world. The second part provides all the essentials and in-depth knowledge pertaining to the different authentication methods you can use and how you can securely publish and expose your applications with on-premise technologies and the Azure AD feature set. The final part of the book focuses entirely on the Microsoft information protection technologies. Another highlight is the more than 40 playbooks you receive to support the learning process through practical tips. With this great resource, you get an information package that also covers the functionality of Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016/2019.

How does this edition differ from the first edition of the book, and why a second edition with more than 85% new content?

First of all, many thanks to all the readers and the valuable feedback I received. I was happy to listen!

Since writing the first edition of the book back in 2016, many features have been completely updated, added, changed, or even removed. The Microsoft Azure world is changing very rapidly, from a pure infrastructure to an object and service-oriented environment. For this reason, it is necessary to include a variety of developmental aspects in the book. Some functions are currently changing their entitlement entirely to the cloud.

However, no overall solution for sustainable identity and access management in a hybrid cloud environment is currently available to fulfill all the different aspects. For this reason, the basics for individual services must be developed to ensure a better shift of the functions.

Another important reason for me to write an updated edition was that I heard from readers and workshop attendees that they require more technical guidance and less information on the decision manager side. This brought me to an approach whereby I provide more than 40 hands-on guides in the book, where you can test all the related information in a practical and guided manner. Furthermore, our workshop attendees and customers found it very hard to find qualified and working lab examples in a compressed form to save time and effort.

Many of you and our attendees loved the structure of the three scenarios in the first book. Frequently, however, I received a request to provide the theory and practical guidance in technology or topic-based flows so as to make it easier to follow, if you are just interested in specific topics, or if you want to use the book as a living reference.

At the time of writing the first book, the Azure information protection technology was not available in the complete approach that it is available today. Since this technology is now mature and an integral aspect of access management, in my view, additional chapters for this topic are an absolute necessity.

Windows Server 2019 is also available to use, so I updated the book to work with the new server version, with a primary focus on hybrid cloud scenarios.