How Microsoft Entra Suite is improving user experience and compliance

Usability versus security has always been a flashpoint, but modern identity continually proves you don’t have to sacrifice one for the other, even in always-on, remote working, hybrid environments.

Microsoft Entra Suite was built around that principle, which brings together identity governance, security and secure access within a unified platform.

Whilst each capability is powerful on its own, their value compounds when combined, helping organisations improve security, meet compliance obligations and create a smoother experience for users.

Entra Suite at a glance

Entra Suite brings together:

• Verified ID Premium for remote onboarding, identity assurance and account recovery using Face Check
• Entra ID Protection for risk detection, suspicious sign-in analysis and automated response
• Entra ID Governance for lifecycle management, access reviews and entitlement visibility
• Entra Private Access for segmented access to private apps and on-premises resources
• Entra Internet Access for identity-driven web filtering, DLP and malware detection

These components work well on their own, but the benefit compounds when they’re combined.

Passwordless and just-in-time access for legacy systems, Face Check strengthens sensitive approval flows and Continuous Access Evaluation (CAE) keeps access aligned to real-time context.

What each Entra Suite component offers

Let’s take a closer look at how the main Entra services behave today and what they offer to the user.

Verified ID and Face Check

Verified ID gives organisations a standard way to issue and verify credentials using decentralised identity. It supports onboarding, access decisions, service desk validation and privacy-conscious data sharing.

Face Check brings this to life by comparing a live selfie to a trusted corporate image, giving support teams a clean method for confirming identity. It also integrates with Entitlement Management for high-value access requests.

Previously, verifying against government-issued ID required a custom integration with a third-party verification service. But today, identity verification partners can be subscribed to directly through the Entra portal and the Security Store.

This unlocks:

• A stronger identity assurance flow
• A native, self-service account recovery option
• Temporary Access Pass issuance after total device loss
• Government ID checks for high-value access if required

These combined features close one of the most challenging gaps in secure identity verification.

Entra ID Protection

Entra ID Protection remains central to Microsoft’s identity risk capability, identifying compromised credentials, unusual behaviour, and suspicious sign-ins. Adaptive policies and CAE help maintain protection without adding unnecessary friction.

In addition, Identity Protection offers:

• Passwordless remediation for risky users
• Token theft detection
• Leaked credential insight for on-prem identities via Defender for Identity
• A new Risk Management Agent to support larger estates

Together, these features deliver clear, actionable signals that help teams make better identity decisions without adding friction for legitimate users.

Entra ID Governance

Core to Entra Suite, Entra ID Governance provides comprehensive tools for managing and monitoring access to resources across both cloud and on-premises environments.

It helps organisations ensure that the right individuals have the appropriate access at the right time, supporting compliance and reducing the risks of excessive or unauthorised permissions through automated workflows and regular access reviews.

Historically, organisations with complex governance requirements often looked to specialist identity governance platforms for capabilities beyond Microsoft’s native offering.

Over the last few years, however, Entra ID Governance has evolved considerably, with Microsoft continuing to invest heavily in areas such as lifecycle management, entitlement management, access reviews, identity verification and hybrid identity governance.

Capabilities such as cloud-native governance of on-premises identities, lifecycle workflows, disconnected application reviews, richer reviewer insights and deeper integration with services across the Microsoft security stack have significantly expanded what organisations can achieve within the platform.

The scope of governance is also starting to broaden. As organisations adopt AI services and agents, identity governance is no longer concerned only with employees, guests and privileged administrators. Microsoft has already begun introducing governance and Conditional Access capabilities for agent identities, reflecting a wider industry shift towards governing human, workload and agent identities through a consistent set of controls.

The result is an increasingly mature governance solution that continues to expand both its depth and the range of identities it can govern.

Entra Private Access

Another jewel in the Entra Suite crown, Entra Private Access is a secure remote access solution designed to enable seamless, granular connectivity to private applications and resources in a truly segmented manner, regardless of user location.

It removes the need for traditional VPNs, offering identity-aware access controls and continuous risk evaluation to protect sensitive assets from unauthorised access.

Where CAE is typically limited to Microsoft services, operating at the network layer means even legacy applications can be brought into the same Zero Trust model.

Examples include:

• Enforcing passwordless authentication for SSH and SMB
• Extending just-in-time access to legacy systems
• Applying MFA and Conditional Access to Kerberos-authenticated resources through Domain Controller sensors

Capabilities such as Intelligent Local Access, support for a broader range of applications and protocols, and access from Entra-registered devices continue to broaden the range of scenarios Entra Private Access can support, helping organisations deliver a more consistent Zero Trust experience across cloud, hybrid and on-premises environments.

Entra Internet Access

The final piece of the puzzle is Entra Internet Access, a secure web gateway (SWG) solution, providing identity-driven protection for users accessing internet resources from any location whilst routing traffic over the secure Microsoft backbone.

Whilst secure web gateways are hardly a new concept, Entra Internet Access continues to evolve as part of Microsoft’s broader vision of identity as the control plane for access decisions.

Rather than treating network security, identity and compliance as separate disciplines, organisations can apply policies using the same identity, device and risk signals already used across the Microsoft security platform.

Examples include:

• TLS inspection
• Branch network integration
• URL filtering
• Network DLP
• Prompt injection protection

While Microsoft themselves have conceded that this feature has historically remained less mature than specialist SWG products, its value comes when looking how this fits more broadly within the suite. When combined with Conditional Access, Continuous Access Evaluation and the wider Microsoft security ecosystem, organisations can enable a more consistent approach to protecting users, applications and data wherever internet access occurs.

How Entra Suite supports regulatory and Zero Trust requirements

Whether NIST, Cyber Assurance Framework (CAF), or almost any other regulatory framework, all tend to share the same common requirements based around Zero Trust principles.

So, how do Entra Suite’s capabilities match up?

Where organisations go from here

If any of this chimes with you but you’re not sure what comes next, speak to Kocho.

It doesn’t matter if you’re not fully Microsoft, the workshop allows for third-party tooling and ultimately provides a gap analysis and roadmap on how to best adopt the services.

Contact us today to find out more or arrange your workshop.

Entra Suite recap: Your questions answered

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