From the course: Microsoft Entra ID: Basics

Open standards support

From the course: Microsoft Entra ID: Basics

Start my 1-month free trial

Open standards support

“

- [Instructor] Let's talk about Industry Standards and Compliance. In the last chapter, we talked about the technical aspects of Azure AD. In this chapter, we'll discuss the business bits. Our primary focus will be to understand how easily Azure AD blends in with Industry Standard solutions, and how well it satisfies Enterprise Compliance requirements. After all, what good is a solution if you need to change a lot to use it and it doesn't comply with organizational requirements, right? Fortunately, that's not going to be a problem with Azure. First, let's begin by talking about Open Standards Support in Azure. As we know, Open Standards enable us to use popular technical specifications that have already been embraced by the industry and the tech community. These standards can apply to a variety of things ranging from writing code, transferring data, exchanging information or, to deploying resources. The reason Open Standards are extremely essential is that they allow us to build components using existing skills and without using proprietary solutions. Let me elaborate on why that's important. If you do pick a proprietary solution and learn how to implement it, there's no guarantee that the skill you learn will be beneficial in other roles outside of that particular solution. An even bigger problem is that you depend on a single vendor to support the solution. What if they shut down operations tomorrow? What if you don't like the solution and want to get rid of it but you're locked in? Vendor lock-ins are pretty common. And what if the solution in itself is great but doesn't integrate well with the other products you have? So, there's a lot of uncertainty with proprietary solutions especially those built by less reputable vendors. Using Open Standards can avoid all these hassles. Azure supports a wide variety of Open Standards. For example, if you are writing backend code, you can use Node.js, Python, Java or PHP, among others. You can spin-up VM's running Red Hat Enterprise Linux, plus a whole bunch of other options. And from an identity and access standpoint, you can use authentication protocols such as OpenID, OAuth or SAML. Leverage Passwordless log-ins using FIDO, or use the system for cross-domain identity management or SCIM specification which is a standard used to exchange identity information across applications and devices. These are just a few examples of Open Standards that Azure supports. The list is actually much bigger. So Microsoft isn't just hunting for PR value. It really is extremely serious about supporting Open and it's showing that by getting up close and personal with it. So rest assured, regardless of whether or not you're a Microsoft shop, you'll be able to use Azure with freedom and flexibility.

Contents