An insight into Azure AD Cloud App Discovery

Mi rosoft’s Azure A ti e Dire tory is rapidly e o i g heavily utilized in

large enterprises. Offered along with an Office 365 subscription, Azure

Active Directory gives you access to thousands of SaaS applications like

Salesforce.com or Box with a single sign-on.

What is Cloud App Discovery ?

We already know the free version of Azure AD makes life easier and

cuts costs from both users and providers. However, there is much more

you can do with it than just that if you’re illi g to ough up so e more pocket change. After upgrading to either the basic or premium

version of Azure AD, you gain access to the cloud discovery function.

Microsoft created this function to alleviate one central problem the

majority of companies today are facing - the inability to integrate their

corporate identity with the cloud service they are currently using. Cloud

app discovery does this by allowing the corporations to directly

manage the cloud services with their internal IT team.

As the first step, companies must first know everything about the cloud

ser i es they’re urre tly usi g, he e the discovery label. Azure AD

cloud app discovery outputs a dashboard for the user that includes

information on what services are being used, how much is being used,

ho’s usi g this, a d ho’s a agi g it all. This i for atio is usually hard to get in a reliable fashion, if you can get it at all.

Once you get inside the AD cloud app discovery dashboard you can do

quite a few things:

1. Export the data into your favorite data analysis tool

2. “et o trols to hat you’d like to olle t data o

3. Sort data to prioritize what you want to view

4. “et a spe ifi app u der your tea ’s IT o trol

Well, this sounds like a dream come true for IT staff handling cloud

security. But speaki g of se urity…

How secure is Azure AD Cloud App Discovery?

According to Microsoft, much more secure than traditional methods of

managing cloud services. This is because Microsoft removes the risk of

having a high-value target hacked, like an admin with complete

permissions.

To accomplish this, Microsoft automatically tracks who has the access

codes and monitors their activity constantly while restricting the time

they have to access the dashboard. So no more undetected intruders,

and no more unlimited access for one-time intruder.

Microsoft is moving the world of cloud hosing and security forward

with new services like these, and we proudly move along with

Mi rosoft’s i o ati e approa h.

Do ’t struggle ith loud hosti g or loud se urity a y ore. We ha dle it re otely ith Mi rosoft’s ser i es. Read ore a out hat

we do here.

Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/sunset-sky-sun-cloud-twilight-476465/